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^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  *^ 


Presented    by  Dy,  T  L,?c^•t■to•n  , 

Division rM^.  y^..  C~  \S>  C  ~J 

Section  'L.QVob 

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E  X  F  O  S  I  1^  I  O  N 


OF 


THE    APOCALYPSE. 


DAVID   N.   LOUD. 


NEW    AND    REVISED    EDITION. 


NEW  YORK: 

F  R  A  N  K  L I K    KNIGHT 

348   BROADWAY. 

1  85  9. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1846, 

By  DAVID  N.  LORD, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern 
District  of  New  York. 


CONTENTS. 


Introduction. 


Section  I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 

XXIX. 

XXX. 

XXXI. 

XXXII. 

XXXIII. 

XXXIV. 

XXXV. 


Page. 

The  Inspiration  of  the  Apocalypse 5 

The  Reception  of  the  Apocalypse  by  the  Church....  19 

The  Apocalypse  not  a  PQem 20 

The  Laws  of  Symbolic  Representation 22 

The  Title  of  the  Apocalypse 37 

The  Apostle's  Salutation  of  the  Churches 38 

The  First  Vision.     Christ's  Annunciation 39 

Epistles  to  Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Pergamos,  and  Thyatira  44 

Epistles  to  Sardis,  Philadelphia,  and  Laodicea 46 

The  Vision  of  the  Deity 52 

The  Delivery  of  the  Book  to  Christ 60 

The  First  Seal 65 

The  Second  Seal 73 

The  Third  Seal 105 

The  Fourth  Seal 125 

The  Fifth  Seal 153 

The  Sixth  Seal 160 

The  Sealing  of  the  Servants  of  God 169 

The  Multitude  in  White  Robes 179 

The  Seventh  Seal 186 

The  First  Trumpet 192 

The  Second  Trumpet 197 

The  Third  Trumpet 201 

The  Fourth  Trumpet 205 

The  Angel  flying  in  Mid-heaven 208 

The  Fifth  Trumpet 212 

The  Sixth  Trumpet .• 221 

The  Rainbow  Angel 229 

The  Temple  and  Witnesses 249 

The  Slaughter  and  Resurrection  of  the  Witnesses. . .  295 

The  Seventh  Trumpet 308 

The  Woman  and  Dragon 312 

The  War  of  Michael  and  the  Dragon 337 

The  Flight  of  the  Woman 347 

The  Ten-horned  Wild  Beast 365 

The  Two-horned  Wild  Beast  and  the  Image 398 

The  Hundred  Forty-four  Thousand  on  Mount  Zion. .  446 

The  Angel  having  the  Everlasting  Gospel 4r>l 

The  Fall  of  Babylon 45b 


CONTENTS. 


Section  XXXVI.    The  Third  Angel  denouncing  Wrath  on  the  Wor- 
shippers of  the  ]5east  and  its  Image 459 

XXXVII.    The  Angel  like  the  Son  of  Man  and  the  Harvest.  462 

XXXVIII.    The  Vintage 466 

XXXIX.    The  Victors  on  the  Glassy  Sea 469 

XL.    The  Seven  Angels  with  the  Seven  Vials 471 

XLI.    The  First  Vial 473 

XLII.    The  Second  Vial 477 

XLIII.    The  Third  Vial 480 

XLIV.    The  Fourth  Vial 482 

XLV.    The  Fifth  Vial 485 

XLVI.    The  Sixth  Vial 488 

XLVII.    The  Unclean  Spirits 490 

XLVIII.    The  Seventh  Vial 492 

XLIX.    The    Woman,    Great   Babylon,    the  Ten-horned 

Wild  Beast,  and  the  Kings 494 

L.    The  Fall  and  Destruction  of  Great  Babylon 500 

LI.    The  Hymn  of  the  heavenly  Hosts  on  the  Destruc- 
tion of  Babylon 505 

LIT.    The  Marriage  of  the  Lamb 506 

LIII.    The  Word  of  God  and  his  Armies 508 

LIV.    The  Binding  of  Satan 513 

LV.    The  First  Resurrection 517 

LVI.    The  Release  of  Satan 522 

LVII.    The   Resurrection  and  Judgment  of  the  Unholy 

Dead a24 

LVIII.    The  new  Heaven  and  new  Earth 527 

LIX.    The  new  Jerusalem .   529 

LX.    Final  Commands  and  Warnings 533 

Conclusion 536 


INTRODUCTION. 


I.     THE  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  APOCALYPSE. 

The  Apocalypse  is  more  eminently  marked  than  any  other 
part  of  the  sacred  writings,  by  the  peculiarities  which  distin- 
guish the  works  of  inspiration  from  those  of  men  ; — a  truth  and 
wisdom  of  thought,  a  suitableness  to  the  attributes  and  preroga- 
tives of  God,  a  greatness  and  majesty,  that  could  proceed  only 
from  the  Omniscient. 

I.  These  characteristics  are  seen  in  the  annunciation  of  him- 
self, which  the  Redeemer  employed  both  in  the  first  and  the  last 
vision,  to  strike  the  apostle  with  a  sense  of  his  deity.  Like  a 
shaft  of*  lightning  from  a  michiight  cloud,  shedding  illumination 
over  a  landscape,  and  raising  the  forms  and  relations  of  its  objects 
into  distinctness,  it  flashes  a  dazzling  gleam  on  the  ground  both 
in  us  and  in  God  on  M-hich  his  government  is  built,  which  men 
usually  either  fail  to  discern,  or  disown  and  shroud  in  darkness. 
"I  am  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  First  and  Last,  the  Beginning  and 
the  End."  He  embraces,  then,  in  himself,  all  duration.  lie 
therefore  preceded  all  other  existences.  He  is  their  Creator 
then,  owner  and  ruler,  and  is  thence  Almighty,  all-wise,  and 
all-good :  and  these  are  the  characteristics — self-existence,  eter- 
nity, omnipotence,  rectitude,  and  tke  relations  of  creator — 
ascribed  to  him  by  the  living  creatures,  chap.  iv.  8,  which,  on 
the  one  hand  are  peculiar  to  him,  and  distinguish  him  above 
all  others,  alike  from  imaginaiy  deities  and  from  creatures ; 
and  that  on  the  other,  irresistibly  impress  the  heart  with 
the  feeling  of  his  rightful  authority  over  it,  and  title  to  its  hom- 
age. Our  nature  is  such,  that  no  one  could  hear  an  utterance 
hke  that  from  heaven,  without  an  instinctive  conviction  that  tiie 
Being  whoiri  it  announces  is  God,  and  has  the  right  of  dominion. 
They  are  altributes  and  relations  that,  by  the  law  of  our  consti- 
tution, awaken  in  us  a  sense  of  subordination  and  responsibility. 
The  employment  of  that  annunciation  to  raise  the  apostle  to  a 
percej)tion  of  his  divinity,  bespeaks  accordingly  a  knowledge  of 


6  INSPIRATION    OF    THE    APOCALYPSE 

man  and  of  God,  that  is  not  only  never  seen  in  the  uninspired, 
but  is  not  equalled  in  the  thoughts  which  the  prophets  themselves 
have  uttered,  in  their  addresses  to  the  Deity,  Great  and  beau- 
tiful as  the  conceptions  they  sometimes  express  are,  above  those 
of  other  minds,  they  are  limited  and  faint  compared  to  these. 
They  are  the  thoughts  of  mortals,  illumined  indeed  and  exaUed 
by  the  inspiring  Spirit ;  but  these  are  the  utterance  of  the  Sell- 
existent  himself,  conscious  of  the  attributes  and  relations  that  pe- 
culiarly distinguish  him,  and  aware  of  our  moral  nature,  and  the 
instruments  that  most  powerfully  excite  in  us  a  sensibility  to  his 
rights. 

So  far  are  men  from  having  realized  that  these  are  the  relations 
that  most  intimately  and  indissolubly  connect  us  with  him,  and 
the  thoughts  that  have  the  strongest  hold  of  our  moral  sensibili- 
ties, that  whether  heathen  or  christian,  philosophers  or  theolo- 
gians, they  have  almost  without  exception,  looked  in  a  wholly 
different  direction  for  the  grounds  of  right,  and  the  most  effective 
considerations  to  impress  the  conscience, — to  the  sense  of  pleas- 
ure, to  self-love,  to  gratitude,  to  expedience,  to  general  utility,  to 
prevalent  opinion,  to  custom,  to  the  will  of  the  magistrate  ;  and 
when,  in  endeavoring  to  excite  in  their  fellow-men  a  sense  of 
duty,  they  have  employed  the  considerations  suggested  by  the 
Scriptures,  it  has  often  at  least  been  without  a  perception  of  the 
grounds  on  which  they  were  proceeding,  and  under  tiie  impulse 
of  feeling,  rather  than  the  guidance  of  theory.  Tlic  Redeemer, 
instead  of  descending  to  such  inadequate  and  misuitable  means 
to  raise  a  sense  of  his  divinity,  employs  an  instnunent  whose 
legitimacy  our  whole  nature  instantly  acknowledges  ;  proclaims 
his  self-existence,  eternity,  omnipotence,  and  relations  as  crea- 
tor and  preserver,  and  builds  on  the  foundation  on  which  the 
fabric  of  his  government  rests,  and  is  to  rest  throughout  its 
everlasting  years,  and  displays  therein  a  perfection  of  intelli- 
gence and  rectitude  that  belongs  only  to  God. 

A  similar  adaptation  and  greatness  mark  the  expression  which 
he  employed  in  announcing  iiiir.Solf  to  the  apostle  as  the  incar- 
nate Word.  "  1  am  the  First,  and  the  Last,  and  tlic  Living.  I 
was  dead,  and  I  live  for  evermore,  and  have  the  keys  of  death 
and  the  grave  ;"  conceptions  that  in  vastness  and  sublimity  im- 
measurably surpass  any  to  which  uninspired  mortals  ever  ascend- 
ed,— extreme  and  opposite  characters  and  prerogatives,  self-ex- 
istence and  mortality,  captivity  to  death,  and  dominion  over  it  and 
liie  bodies  of  the  dead,  that  were  never  together  ])redicable  of 
any  but  Jesus  Christ.     Nothing  in  the  whole  circle  of  the  ad- 


INSPIRATION    OF    THE    APOCALYPSE.  7 

dresses  of  God  to  us,  is  at  a  greater  distance  from  the  concep- 
tions of  mortals,  exhibits  more  clearly  his  knowledge  of  our 
moral  constitution,  or  displays  a  greater  wisdom  of  adaptation, 
than  the  use  of  these  thoughts  to  raise  the  prophet  to  a  recog- 
nition of  him  as  the  incarnate  Word. 

II.  A  similar  proof  of  its  divine  origin,  is  seen  in  the  personal 
appearance  of  the  Deity,  in  the  opening  and  several  of  the  sub- 
sequent visions. 

There  is  an  obvious  necessity  that  God  should  appear  in  the 
visions  as  the  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  universe  ;  the  rightful 
object  of  homage,  and  the  author  of  the  revelation  :  and  the 
Redeemer  also,  both  as  the  Lamb  slain  for  men,  and  after  his 
sacrifice,  as  the  Almighty  King  accomplishing  the  great  scheme 
of  redemption.  Yet  it  were  inconsistent  with  their  nature,  to 
represent  them  by  any  thing  drawn  from  the  created  universe. 
There  is  nothing  among  creatures  presenting  any  analogy  to  the 
Selfexistent,  the  Eternal,  the  Almighty.  To  attempt  a  repre- 
sentation through  them,  were  to  degrade,  not  exalt  our  concep- 
tions of  him.  The  law  of  symbolization  accordingly  forbids 
his  introduction  by  representatives.  To  meet  therefore,  on  the 
one  hand  the  necessity  of  exhibiting  him  as  the  author  of  the 
revelation,  and  yet  not  detract  on  the  other  from  his  dignity, 
analogy  is  laid  aside,  and  he  appears  in  his  own  person.  A 
shape  immeasurably  transcending  our  loftiest  conceptions  of 
created  grandeur,  invested  with  the  insignia  of  infinite  power, 
knowledge  and  dominion,  appears  enthroned.  Various  orders 
and  innumerable  hosts  of  intelligences  bending  in  his  presence, 
recognise  and  worship  him  as  the  Selfexistent,  the  Creator  and 
Ruler  of  all,  and  hymn  the  rightfulness,  the  wisdom  and  the 
benignity  of  his  reign.  In  like  manner  the  Redeemer  appears 
in  the  first  vision,  in  his  human  form  glorified  to  dazzhng 
majesty,  with  symbols  of  his  peculiar  character  and  office  as 
the  head  of  the  church. 

This  expedient  is  marked  by  a  loftiness  and  beauty  of  wisdom, 
wholly  transcending  the  genius  of  mortals.  Had  there  been  no 
visible  exhibition  of  God,  it  would  have  detracted  greatly  from 
the  perfection  of  the  revelation.  The  apostle  would  have  been 
left,  not  indeed  without  a  knowledge  from  whom  the  visions  pro- 
ceeded, but  without  that  effulgence  of  demonstration  which  be- 
came the  divine  majesty,  and  which  his  necessities  required. 
The  concinnity  of  the  spectacle  would  have  disappeared.  It 
would  have  been  an  apocalypse  without  a  visible  revealer ;  a 
series  of  divine  acts,  without  a  manifested  deity.     His  appear- 


8  INSPIRATION    OF    THE    APOCALYPSE. 

ance  gave  llie  visions  llieir  proper  relation.  The  dazzling  splen- 
dor of  his  aspect,  the  annunciation  of  his  attributes,  the  awful 
symbols  of  his  supremacy,  the  homage  of  the  universe,  distin- 
guished him  from  all  other  actors  in  the  scene,  and  raised  to 
vaslness  and  intensity  the  apostle's  conceptions  of  his  distance 
from  creatures. 

Had  he  not  appeared  in  person,  but  been  represented  by  a 
created  intelligence,  it  had  been  to  neglect  the  care  with  which 
he  ever  guards  his  deity ;  to  descend  to  the  false  conceptions  of 
men,  in  place  of  exalting  their  thoughts  of  him  to  truth  and  dig- 
nity; and  to  stamp  an  imperfection  on  the  revelation  that  would 
have  bespoken  it  the  work  rather  of  human  contrivance,  than 
divine  wisdom.  It  has  been  the  disposition  of  men  in  all  ages, 
however  lofty  their  genius,  to  represent  God  and  his  attributes 
in  the  forms  of  creatures,  and  by  fancied  analogies.  With  what 
beauty  his  wisdom  appears  in  this  instance  in  avoiding  all  coun- 
tenance to  that  tendency,  and  yet  meeting  at  once  the  demands 
of  our  nature,  and  of  his  majesty. 

III.  There  is  a  suitableness  of  the  symbols  to  the  agents  and 
events  they  are  employed  to  represent,  that  bespeaks  them  the 
work  of  a  higher  wisdom  than  that  of  man. 

They  give  in  all  instances  with  great  clearness  and  strength, 
a  color  of  representation  that  accords  with  the  beings  and  agen- 
cies which  they  foreshadow.  They  are  chosen  mainly  in  con- 
formity with  a  single,  and  however  it  has  been  overlooked,  a 
most  obvious  law,  which  when  understood,  renders  at  least  the 
species  of  agents  and  events  which  they  denote,  of  easy  dis- 
covery. When  they  deviate  from  that  law,  it  is  by  the  intro- 
duction, as  in  the  instances  already  noticed,  of  the  beings  them- 
selves to  be  exhibited,  from  the  impossibility  of  finding  an  ap- 
propriate substitute.  And  they  display  the  great  characters  of 
the  agents  and  objects  whicli  they  represent,  with  a  sublime 
brevity,  clearness  and  strength,  that  are  sfeen  only  in  delineations 
by  the  pencil  of  God. 

There  is  thus  a  beautiful  propriety,  an  impressive  grandeur, 
in  tlie  exhibition  of  a  gigantic  angel,  robed  in  a  cloud,  with  an 
iris  glory  encircling  his  liead,  descending  from  the  atmosphere, 
as  a  representative  of  ilhistrious  men  whom  God  commissions 
to  proclaim  anew  the  gospel  to  the  world,  and  be  the  instruments 
of  conducting  multitudes  from  age  to  age  to  the  knowledge  and 
acceptance  of  salvation. 

A  monster  brute  formed  by  the  union  of  the  most  character- 
istic parts  of  the  j)rincipal  ferocious  beasts,  is  an  apt  emblem  of 


INSPIRATION    OF    THE    APOCALYPSE.  9 

a  vast  combination  in  a  government  of  savage  and  tyrannic  men, 
wantonly  slaughtering  and  devouring  to  satiate  their  lawless  and 
cruel  passions. 

What  other  portent  of  terrific  grandeur  can  be  imagined  so 
suited,  as  a  lasting  eclipse  or  obliteration  of  the  sun,  to  denote 
the  fall  from  the  pinnacle  of  glory  of  an  ancient  government, 
and  the  darkness,  confusion  and  dismay  with  which  such  a  ca- 
tastrophe overwhelms  a  people  deprived  in  an  instant  of  the  pro- 
tection of  law,  robbed  of  rank,  plundered  of  property,  and  ex- 
posed to  the  ruthless  passions  of  brutal  conquerors.  Or  what 
event  in  the  natural  world  more  fit  than  an  earthquake  agitating 
the  surface  of  vast  regions,  and  dashing  down  the  fabrics  of  art, 
can  be  found  to  symbolize  a  great  political  revolution  in  which 
the  Vi^hole  structure  of  society  is  shaken  with  passion,  all  ordi- 
nary law  suspended,  ancient  institutions  overthrown,  and  an 
aspect  of  violence  and  disorder  impressed  on  every  scene. 

An  eminent  appropriateness  and  adequacy  thus  mark  all  the 
symbols  of  the  Apocalypse.  They  deviate  in  no  instance  from 
the  most  conspicuous  propriety.  They  are  never  disproportioned 
in  significance  to  the  objects  they  are  employed  to  represent. 

IV.  Its  exhibition  of  the  eternal  Word  as  exalted  to  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  universe,  and  the  recognition  by  all  orders  of 
intelligences  of  his  title  on  the  ground  of  his  work  as  Redeemer 
to  reign,  is  a  mark  of  its  inspiration. 

The  views  which  it  presents  of  his  station  and  work  as  Re- 
deemer, are  in  accordance  with  the  representations  of  the  other 
Scriptures.  He  appears  in  the  first  vision,  and  in  the  addresses 
to  the  Asiatic  messengers,  as  the  head  of  the  church,  holding 
the  stars  in  his  hand,  walking  amidst  the  candlesticks,  chasten- 
ing his  offending  people,  rewarding  the  faithful,  destroying  his 
enemies  ; — in  the  second  as  receiving  from  the  Father  the  vol 
ume  of  his  designs  to  unfold  them  to  the  apostle,  and  in  the 
following  as  executing  them  by  his  providence.  His  elevation 
thus  to  the  throne  of  heaven,  administration  of  the  divine  gov- 
ernment through  a  vast  succession  of  ages,  and  reception  of  the 
homage  of  the  universe,  is  one  of  the  most  wonderful  of  his 
agencies  as  Redeemer,  and  doubtless  one  of  the  most  essential 
to  the  perfection  of  his  work.  Whatever  other  reasons  there 
may  have  been  for  that  measure,  it  is  apparent,  that  it  gives 
birth  to  several  most  important  results  which  would  not  have 
been  otherwise  attained  ;  a  demonstration  on  an  infinite  scale  of 
his  deity ;  a  recognition  of  his  deity  and  title  to  reign  by  the 
universe  ;  an  intimate  relationship  between  him  as  the  incarnate 

2 


10  INSPIRATION    OF    THE    APOCALYPSE. 

Word,  and  all  his  intelligent  subjects  ;  and  thence  a  manifesta- 
tion to  them  of  his  work  as  Redeemer,  and  communication  of 
the  infinite  aids  to  wisdom,  rectitude  and  happiness  which  die 
knowledge  of  it  is  suited  to  yield.  The  Apocalypse  exhibits 
this  great  feature  of  his  work  in  a  most  impressive  form  ;  and  it 
is  a  mark  that  it  is  a  revelation  from  him.  What  a  grandeur  of 
design  it  displays  !  How  suitable  to  the  greatness  of  God  !  How 
adapted  to  the  necessities  of  his  kingdom  !  Into  what  an  im- 
measurable significance  it  expands  the  work  of  redemption  :  and 
how  it  reconciles  with  his  infinite  dignity  and  wisdom,  the  con- 
descension of  the  eternal  Word  to  so  humble  a  nature  as  ours, 
and  the  labors,  the  ignominies  and  the  sufferings  through  which 
he  purchased  salvation  !  What  an  elevation  it  disp/ays  above 
the  views  which  are  usually  entertained  by  men,  who  limit  their 
thoughts  of  the  influence  of  his  work  almost  wholly  to  our  race  ! 
And  what  a  contrast  it  presents  to  the  false  and  impious  concep- 
tions of  it,  which,  when  left  without  restraint,  they  adopt  and 
maintain,  as  is  shown  in  the  symbolization  of  the  apostate 
church  ! 

V.  The  thoughts,  purposes  and  actions  which  are  ascribed  to 
the  Word,  are  such  as  befit  his  station  as  Redeemer  and  Ruler 
of  the  universe,  and  could  never  have  proceeded  from  the  un- 
aided genius  of  man. 

He  proclaims  his  attributes  and  prerogatives  as  the  Self- 
existent.  He  acts  as  intrusted  with  the  assertion  and  support 
of  the  rights  of  God.  He  displays  his  purpose  to  maintain  a 
government  of  spotless  righteousness,  and  reward  the  obedient 
with  the  gifts  of  immortal  life,  and  the  incorrigible  with  eternal 
death.  He  exhibits  an  attention  to  all  the  actions  of  his  people, 
and  knowledge  of  their  thoughts,  of  which  none  but  the  Om- 
niscient is  capable ;  and  an  awful  justice  towards  sinners, 
that  belongs  only  to  a  being  of  infinite  intelligence  and  rec- 
titude. 

On  the  other  hand  he  displays  a  majestic  forbearance,  tender- 
ness and  benignity  toward  his  people.  He  stoops  to  their  ne- 
cessities ;  he  supports  them  in  their  trials  ;  he  is  the  witness  of 
all  their  obedience  ;  he  holds  a  crown  of  life  in  his  hand  to 
reward  their  fidelity.  Of  all  the  delineations  of  love  that  have 
ever  been  drawn,  there  is  none  that  approaches  in  beauty  and 
sublimity  that  presented  in  the  Apocalypse,  of  the  sentiments 
with  which  the  Saviour  regards  the  living  wliom  he  is  first  to 
raise  to  glory;  chap.  xiv.  1-6.  They  arc  youths,  in  the  bloom 
and  spotlessness  of  iirst  maturity.     They  bear  on  their  brows  a 


INSPIRATION    OF    THE    APOCALYPSE.  11 

circlet  on  which  his  name,  and  the  name  of  the  Father  are  en- 
graven. Their  song  is  exhibited  as  marked  by  a  significance  and 
fraught  with  a  homage  which  neither  any  others  of  the  redeem- 
ed, nor  the  angeUc  hosts  can  equal.  They  are  associates  and 
companions  of  the  Lamb,  and  follow  him  whithersoever  he  goes. 
He  remembers  none  of  their  offences.  Their  fidelity  is  un- 
questioned. They  are  without  fault  before  him.  From  what 
heart  but  his  who  loved  them  and  washed  them  in  his  own 
blood,  and  made  them  kings  and  priests  unto  God,  could  ex- 
pressions like  those  proceed !  The  patience,  the  tenderness,  the 
condescension,  the  love  displayed  by  parents  towards  their 
offending  offspring,  are  always  beautiful,  and  often  rise  to  gran- 
deur. But  in  their  happiest  forms  and  highest  energies,  they 
ire  only  proportional  to  their  limited  nature  and  relations.  The 
ove  of  Christ  has  a  greatness  and  sublimity  of  which  the  In- 
nite  alone  is  capable. 

The  ascription  to  the  Redeemer  of  thoughts  and  affections  so 
suited  to  his  complex  nature,  his  station  and  agency,  required  a 
higher  judgment  than  man's,  and  bespeaks  it  the  work  of  the 
Omniscient  Spirit.  There  is  no  task  so  difficult  to  even  the 
greatest  geniuses,  as  the  conception  of  thoughts,  affections,  and 
actions  appropriate  to  the  Deity.  The  great  poets  have  failed  in 
none  of  their  attempts  so  universally  and  conspicuously  as  in  this. 
They  have  seldom  risen,  even  in  their  addresses  to  the  Supreme, 
to  a  becoming  simplicity  and  sublimity  of  thought.  The  opposite 
natures,  the  infinite  energy,  the  lofty  suitableness  both  to  his 
deity  and  his  manhood,  of  the  affections  and  actions  ascribed  in  the 
Apocalypse  to  the  Redeemer,  form  a  picture  of  truth  and  beauty 
which  none  but  the  all-perfect  Intelligence  himself  could  have 
drawn. 

VI,  The  system  of  administration  through  a  vast  period,  fore- 
shown in  the  Apocalypse,  is  such  as  no  uninspired  mind  could 
have  anticipated  from  the  Redeemer's  exaltation  to  the  throne  of 
the  universe. 

Such  is  the  permission  of  an  extreme  debasement  and  corrup- 
tion of  the  church  through  a  long  tract  of  time  ;  the  continue(! 
allowance  of  idolatry  over  a  great  part  of  the  globe  ;  the  rise  ant, 
spread  of  new  forms  of  false  religion  ;  the  cruel  domination  over 
his  people  through  ages  of  apostate  powers  ;  the  slaughter  of  his 
faithful  witnesses  ;  his  continuing  to  leave  their  dust  to  slumber 
in  the  ignominious  ruin  of  the  grave  through  a  vast  round  of  cen- 
turies ;  and  his  release  of  Satan  from  imprisonment  after  the  mil- 
lenium,  and  permission  again  to  tempt  the  nations,  and  convert 


12  INSPIRATION'   OF  THE   APOCALYPSE. 

the  world  inlo  a  scene  of  rebellion  and  misery.  We  can  now 
indeed  see  that  results  spring  from  this  procedure  that  are  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  the  understanding  and  vindication  of  the 
work  of  redemption  itself,  and  serve  to  prepare  the  way  for  the 
measures  of  grace  that  are  to  follow  through  interminable  ages. 
That  man  is  truly  such  a  being  as  the  work  of  salvation  assumes, 
is  shown  on  a  boundless  scale  ;  his  greater  readiness  to  reject  and 
pervert  the  grace  of  God  than  to  accept  it ;  the  inadequacy  ol 
secondary  means  to  convert  or  restrain  him  ;  the  facility  with 
which  he  yields  to  temptation  ;  the  incorrigibleness  with  which 
he  perseveres  in  sin  ;  and  the  inextinguishable  malice  of  Satan, 
whose  obduracy  no  punishment  can  soften,  whose  thirst  of  evil 
no  success  in  ruining  immortal  beings  can  satiate.  But  who, 
anterior  to  the  commencement  of  this  administration,  could  have 
deemed  it  would  be  chosen  by  the  Son  of  God  in  preference  to 
all  others  ;  that  after  having,  by  his  sacrifice,  rendered  it  com- 
patible with  justice  to  save  the  race,  he  should  continue  genera- 
tion after  generation  to  leave  a  vast  proportion  to  perish ;  that 
instead  of  displaying  his  infinite  power  and  delight  to  subdue  his 
enemies  to  obedience,  he  should  allow  them  to  triumph  over  him  ; 
that  he  should  leave  his  faithful  people  to  be  trampled  down  and 
slaughtered  by  apostate  powers  arrogating  his  rights  and  usurp- 
ing his  throne  ;  and  finally,  that  after  having  conquered  the  earth 
and  converted  it  into  a  paradise  of  beauty,  virtue,  and  bliss,  and 
reigned  over  it  in  majesty  through  a  vast  circle  of  ages,  he  should 
again  allow  Satan  to  deface  it  with  rebellion  and  death,  and  drag 
new  millions  down  the  abyss  of  hopeless  ruin.  These  are 
measures  which  no  human  being,  however  exalted  in  intellect, 
could  have  deemed  the  most  eligible.  They  are  measures  which 
no  one,  unless  taught  by  the  Spirit  of  inspiration,  could  have 
thought  were  even  compatible  with  wisdom  and  benignity.  They 
contradict  the  expectations  of  the  church  at  the  period  when  they 
were  written,  in  place  of  according  with  them  ;  and  reason  in 
every  age,  instead  of  being  able  to  discover  their  necessity,  has 
been  baliled  by  them  and  confounded.  The  prediction  of  a  pro- 
cedure so  opposite  to  all  that  we  should  naturally  expect,  and  to 
the  faith  and  hope  of  the  church  at  the  time  of  its  promulgation, 
could  have  emanated  from  no  one  but  the  Omniscient  himself, 
who  formed  and  executes  the  purposes  which  are  here  made 
known. 

VII.  The  thoughts  and  sentiments  ascribed  to  the  redeemed 
and  angelic  hosts,  are  marked  by  a  truth,  a  wisdom,  and  grandeur, 
immeasurably  distant  from  the  imperfect  conceptions  of  men. 


INSPIRATION   OF  THE   APOCALYPSE.  13 

Thus  they  are  exhibited  as  aware  of  the  right  of  God  to  the 
homage  of  his  creatures,  from  his  self-existence,  eternity,  omnip- 
otence, and  work  as  creator ;  and  as  worshipping  him  on  that 
ground.  "  Holy,  holy,  holy.  Lord  God  Almighty,  who  was,  and 
who  is,  and  who  is  to  come.  Thou  the  Lord  our  God  art  worthy 
to  receive  glory  and  honor  and  power,  for  thou  didst  create  all 
things.  For  thy  will  they  were,  and  were  created."  This  recogni- 
tion and  acknowledgment  of  that  foundation  of  his  rights  is  highly 
beautiful,  as  it  is  a  response  to  the  proclamation  of  his  attributes 
and  agency,  addressed  by  him  to  the  apostle  and  the  churches,  in 
which  he  exhibited  them  as  the  ground  of  his  title  and  claim  to  their 
homage.  It  is  eminently  becoming  those  glorious  beings,  as  it  de- 
notes an  elevation  immeasurably  above  the  narrow  and  erroneous 
views  of  men,  who  have  displayed  in  every  age  a  singular  inadvert- 
ence of  these  rights,  and  in  vast  multitudes,  even  amidst  the  light 
of  revelation,  entertained  and  taught  the  most  adverse  and  unwor- 
thy theories;  some  openly  denying  that  he  has  any  merit  of  homage 
because  of  hfs  deity  and  work  as  creator,  and  maintaining  that  the 
only  worship  to  which  lie  is  entitled,  is  that  of  gratitude  ;  and 
that  his  claim  therefore  has  its  foundation  and  its  measure  in  the 
happiness  which  he  bestows  ;  and  others  asserting  that  his  deity 
and  agency  as  creator,  so  far  from  investing  him  with  rights  over 
his  creatures,  place  him  under  obligation  to  them,  and  give  them 
a  title  to  claim  from  him  the  gift  of  the  utmost  happiness  of  which 
their  natures  render  them  capable  ; — a  scheme  which,  degrading 
God  to  the  condition  of  a  subject,  and  exalting  creatures  to  the 
throne,  exhibits  a  government  over  them  as  impossible.  And  er- 
rors scarcely  less  absurd  and  portentous  lie  couched  in  all  the 
great  theories  of  obligation ; — self-love,  utility,  benevolence, 
will,  custom, — which  have  enjoyed  through  ages,  and  still  enjoy 
a  principal  currency.  But  those  august  intelligences,  many  of 
whom  have  lived  in  his  presence  through  innumerable  years, 
whose  ihoughls  are  intermixed  with  no  errors,  and  overclouded 
by  no  uncertainty,  and  who  have  risen  to  lofty  views  of  his  infi- 
nite greatness,  and  the  significance  of  his  relations,  see  in  the 
clearest  light,  and  feel  with  the  profoundest  sensibility,  his  title  to 
reign  because  of  his  deity  and  work  as  creator  and  upholder,  and 
yield  him  their  homage  for  the  reasons  for  which  he  claims  it. 

They  appear  in  majestic  beauty  also  in  their  celebration  of  the 
rectitude,  wisdom,  and  benevolence  of  his  government.  The 
raptured  sense  which  they  display  of  the  grandeur  of  those  per- 
fections, bespeaks  a  truth  and  largeness  of  understanding  and 
sanctity  of  atfeclion  eminently  befitting  beings  exalted  to  stations 


14  INSPIRATION   OF  THE  APOCALYPSE. 

in  his  presence,  given  to  survey  the  vast  spectacle  of  his  sway 
over  the  worlds,  and  formed  to  find  a  happiness  great  in  propor- 
tion to  the  strength  of  their  nature  in  the  contemplation  and  ex- 
ercise of  wisdom  and  virtue. 

But  they  ascend  to  a  still  sublimer  height  in  their  ascriptions 
of  rectitude  and  wisdom  to  him  in  the  infliction  of  his  wrath,  and 
summons  of  the  universe  to  joy  and  thanksgiving  at  the  destruc- 
tion of  his  enemies.  What  a  strength  of  understanding  such  a 
chant  of  acquiescence  in  the  eternal  overtlirow  of  innumerable 
myriads  bespeaks  !  What  an  energy  of  rectitude  ;  what  a  sense 
of  the  rights  of  God  ;  what  a  comprehension  of  his  ways  ;  what 
views  of  the  guilt  of  incorrigible  sinners,  and  the  necessity  that 
they  should  be  treated  according  to  their  deserts  !  What  a  fore- 
sight of  the  influence  of  that  great  measure  on  the  obedient  uni- 
verse !  The  ascription  to  them  of  views  and  afi'ections  thus  suit- 
ing their  exalted  stations,  is  the  work  manifestly  of  a  higher 
intelligence  than  that  of  man,  and  can  have  proceeded  from  none 
but  the  all-comprehensive  wisdom  of  the  revealing  Spirit. 

VIII.  There  is  a  vastness  and  beauty  in  the  designs  foreshown 
in  the  Apocalypse,  that  not  only  transcends  human  contrivance, 
but  which  none  of  its  numerous  students,  with  all  the  aids  which 
a  large  accomplishment  furnishes,  seem  to  have  comprehended. 

There  is  a  greatness  and  wisdom  of  which  none  but  the  Infi- 
nite is  capable,  in  the  purpose  of  such  an  administration  as  that 
which  has  already  been  exercised  through  eighteen  hundred 
years,  in  which  men  are  still  allowed  to  sin  and  perish  on  a  vast 
scale,  and  a  foundation  thereby  laid  by  the  verification  it  presenls 
of  the  grounds  on  which  the  work  of  redemption  proceeds,  for  a 
safe  and  boundless  exercise  of  power  and  grace  towards  the  race 
throu2"h  the  innumerable  ages  that  are  to  follow.  Who  but  he 
whose  intelligence  is  all-comprehensive,  whose  rectitude  and  be 
nignity  are  equal  to  his  omnipotence,  and  who  builds  to  meet  for 
eternity  the  necessities  of  a  boundless  kingdom,  could  have  dis- 
cerned the  expediency,  and  had  strength  of  wisdom  to  choose 
such  a  procedure.  Men  so  far  from  having  risen  by  their  unas- 
sisted faculties  to  the  perception  of  such  a  reason  for  that  great 
measure,  or  learned  it  from  the  Scriptures,  have  resorted  for  so- 
lutions to  the  most  distant  and  preposterous  conjectures  : — to  a 
denial  on  the  one  hand  of  power  to  God  to  exert  an  eff"ectual  in- 
fluence on  the  minds  of  creatures  ;  to  an  ascription  to  him  on 
the  other,  of  a  preference  that  they  should  sin  and  perish  rather 
than  obey. 

How  majestic  is  the  purpose  to  raise  the  redeemed  from  the 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE  APOCALYPSE.  15 

imperfection  of  our  present  nature,  to  a  splendor  of  form,  and 
strength  and  elevation  of  faculties,  resembling  the  glorified  hu- 
manity of  the  Redeemer,  and  fitting  them  to  dwell  in  his  pres- 
ence and  fill  illustrious  ofiices  in  his  empire !  How  suitable  to 
his  perfections,  and  adapted  to  glorify  him,  the  design  to  put  an 
end  at  length  to  the  reign  of  sin  and  misery  on  earth ;  to  banish 
from  it  the  disorders  to  which  revolt  has  given  birth,  and  convert 
it  again  into  a  paradise  of  beauty,  rectitude,  and  bliss,  that  its 
adaptation  to  the  wants  of  such  a  race  as  are  made  its  tenants 
may  be  seen,  and  man's  capability  be  shown,  of  the  exalted  wis- 
dom, virtue,  and  happiness  to  which  he  was  originally  called ! 

What  effulgent  characters  of  wisdom  mark  the  purpose  of  the 
Redeemer,  by  descending  in  visible  majesty  to  the  earth,  and 
reigning  over  it  through  immeasurable  periods,  to  exalt  it  into  an 
intimacy  and  grandeur  of  relation  to  himself,  proportional  to  the 
greatness  of  the  measure  by  which  he  opened  the  way  for  its  sal- 
vation !  How  consonant  to  the  boundlessness  of  his  understand- 
ing and  benevolence,  the  design  to  continue  the  redemption  of 
generation  after  generation  without  end,  and  thus  furnish  through 
eternal  years  a  perpetually  accumulating  demonstration,  how  ade- 
quate to  justify  his  interposition,  the  great  objects  are  for  which 
he  stooped  to  incarnation  and  death  !  And  how  beautiful  the 
grace,  how  sublime  the  wisdom  of  the  purpose,  to  give  his  re- 
deemed, raised  in  glory  from  the  grave,  to  reside  with  him  on  the 
earth,  till  majestic  offices  of  love  toward  the  unglorified  church, 
and  display  in  that  manner  the  contrast  of  their  rectitude,  wisdom, 
and  benevolence,  to  the  fraud  and  malignity  of  Satan  and  his  hosts ! 
How  immeasurably  this  vastness  transcends  the  nothingness  of 
men !  How  suitable  to  the  boundless  strength  of  his  intellect, 
and  infinite  fervor  of  his  benignity  !  How  adapted  to  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  countless  multitudes  of  moral  creatures,  whom  he  is 
to  supply  with  materials  of  thought,  and  lead  on  from  height  to 
height  in  wisdom,  virtue,  and  bliss,  throughout  the  round  of  ever 
lasting  years  ! 

IX.  The  agents  and  events  foreshown  in  those  predictions  of  the 
Apocalypse  which  have  already  been  fulfilled,  are  such  as  none 
but  the  Omniscient  could  have  foreseen. 

To  the  foresight  indeed  of  a  single  event,  and  especially  a  dis- 
tant one  in  the  agency  of  creatures,  no  being  is  adequate  but  the 
All-seeing.  The  foreknowledge  of  such  an  event,  includes  a 
knowledge  also  of  the  nature  of  the  agent  who  is  to  exert  it,  the 
certainty  of  his  existence,  the  conditions  in  which  he  is  to  act, 
the  influences  that  are  to  prompt  him,  the  object  of  the  action, 


16  INSPIRATION    OF    THE    APOCALYPSE. 

lis  effects,  and  thence  necessarily  of  the  whole  train  of  causes 
and  effects,  of  agents  and  influences,  that  are  to  intervene  from 
the  period  of  the  foreknowledge,  to  the  occurrence  of  the  event 
foreseen  ;  and  especially  of  the  purpose  of  God  to  give  existence 
to  the  physical  causes  and  voluntary  agents,  and  to  allow  the 
influences  that  belong  to  that  train.  But  such  a  knowledge  none 
manifestly  but  God  himself  can  enjoy.  The  number  of  agents, 
causes,  acts  and  effects  that  enter  into  such  a  succession,  when 
the  event  is  distant,  must  be  such  in  multitude  and  complexity, 
as  no  created  intellect,  were  the  series  revealed,  could  possibly 
grasp.  How  much  more  must  the  infinite  complexity  transcend 
the  narrow  limits  of  the  human  intellect,  when  the  agents,  actions 
and  events  foreshown  are  innumerable  ;  and  not  only  of  our  race, 
but  of  other  orders  of  beings  ; — disembodied  spirits,  myriads  of 
holy  angels,  the  legions  of  the  fallen  ;  and  through  a  vast  suc- 
cession of  ages  ;  and  finally  when  the  agencies  and  events  fore- 
told are  such  as  had  never  been  beheld,  and  as  no  experience 
or  observation  could  render  probable  ;  as  are  many  of  the  actors 
and  events  exhibited  in  the  Apocalypse,  that  have  beyond  all 
rational  disputation  appeared  on  the  theatre  of  the  world,  and  are 
still  accomplishing  the  agency  and  exerting  the  influences  fore- 
shown of  them. 

Such  pre-eminently  is  the  disruption  of  the  western  Roman 
empire  into  ten  kingdoms,  the  subsequent  rise  among  them  of 
an  eleventh,  their  cotemporaneous  subsistence  thence  through  a 
long  tract  of  ages,  and  union  and  resemblance  in  such  a  degree, 
that  notwithstanding  their  individuality  and  difference  of  language, 
manners,  and  policy,  they  are  justly  considered  as  still  one  em- 
pire, and  their  rulers  represented  by  a  single  symbol.  To  one 
reasoning  from  the  history  of  preceding  empires,  it  might  indeed 
have  seemed  probable  that  the  Roman  would  at  no  distant  period 
undergo  a  division  into  different  kingdoms ;  but  nothing  in  the 
nature  of  its  territory  or  population  could  suggest  ten,  any  more 
than  any  other  as  the  number  into  which  it  was  to  be  divided  ; 
nor  could  any  thing  in  the  history  of  earlier  nations,  suggest  the 
possibility  tliat  such  a  number  of  cotemporaneous  states,  dif- 
fering in  language,  laws,  pursuits,  and  policy,  and  almost  per- 
petually warring  on  each  other,  could  yet  so  resemble  each  other 
in  religion  especially,  and  so  unite  in  a  common  relation  to  an 
elevenlli,  as  in  an  emphatic  sense  to  constitute  them  one,  and 
render  it  requisite  to  represent  those  who  rule  them  by  a  single 
symbol.  No  such  union  or  resemblance  was  ever  seen  in  the 
ancient  cotemporary  governments. 


INSPIRATION    OF    THE    APOCALYPSE.  17 

Such  is  the  rise  of  the  eleventh  government,  first  as  an  eccle- 
siastical powder,  next  as  a  kingly,  by  the  fall  before  it  of  a  part 
of  the  ten  kingdoms,  and  its  subsistence  through  a  long  series 
of  ages  in  that  form,  in  intimate  relations  with  the  others,  and  the 
exertion  over  them  of  momentous  influences. 

And  finally,  such  is  the  concession  by  the  others  to  that  ele- 
venth kingdom  of  an  ecclesiastical  rule  over  them  closely  resem- 
bling in  the  rights  it  usurped,  and  the  power  it  exerted,  the  im- 
pious assumptions,  and  tyrannic  sway  of  the  rulers  themselves  of 
those  kingdoms.  Nothing  of  that  nature  had  before  been  seen 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  Nothing  in  the  nature  of  men,  or 
the  laws  of  divine  providence,  could  at  the  promulgation  of  the 
Apocalypse  have  suggested  it  to  one  contemplating  the  future, 
as  probable  or  possible. 

In  the  novelty  then  and  singularity  of  these  agents  and  events, 
the  almost  infinite  multitude  and  complication  of  persons,  causes, 
circumstances,  influences,  acts  and  results  that  enter  into  the 
series,  and  the  consideration  that  at  innumerable  steps  in  the 
train,  the  absence,  or  variation  of  a  single  agent,  such  for  exam- 
ple as  a  Charlemagne,  a  Gregory  VII.,  an  Innocent  III.,  a 
Leo  X.,  a  Charles  V.,  a  Pius  V.,  a  Sixtus  V.,  would  have 
changed  the  whole  result,  we  have  a  demonstration  immense  and 
overwhelming,  of  a  knowledge  to  which  the  human  intellect  is 
wholly  inadequate,  and  proof  that  it  is  the  work  of  the  Omnis- 
cient Spirit. 

X.  There  are  several  things  in  the  Apocalypse  which  it  is 
incredible  would  have  been  introduced,  had  it  been  the  contri- 
vance of  an  uninspired  person. 

Such  is  the  representation  of  a  sharp  two-edged  sword  pro- 
ceeding from  the  mouth  of  the  Saviour,  in  the  first  and  in  the 
nineteenth  chapter.  Eichhorn  accordingly,  who  treated  the  work 
as  the  mere  invention  of  the  apostle  to  adorn  and  aggrandize 
some  of  the  events  that  marked  the  early  progress  especially  of 
Christianity,  regarded  this  as  an  egregious  violation  of  good 
taste. 

Such  is  the  scene  in  the  fifth  chapter,  in  which  the  apostle 
exhibits  a  mighty  angel  as  crying  with  a  loud  voice,  who  is  wor- 
thy to  open  the  book  of  God's  purposes,  and  loose  the  seals 
thereof;  and  when  no  creature  appeared  to  open  it,  represents 
himself  as  overwhelmed  with  disappointment  and  grief,  under  the 
apprehension  that  it  must  forever  remain  sealed.  No  one  would 
deliberately  contrive  a  scene,  exhibiting  himself  as  falling  in  that 
manner  into  the  error  of  imacrinina;  that  creatures  can  unfold  the 

3 


18  INSPIRATION    OF    THE    APOCALYPSE. 

boundless  purposes  of  God  to  the  church,  and  weeping  under 
the  mistake. 

Who,  following  the  suggestions  of  his  unassisted  judgment  or 
fancy,  would  have  introduced  the  silence  of  half  an  hour  as  the 
first  consequence  of  opening  the  seventh  seal  ?  Its  significance 
and  propriety,  are  at  least  very  far  from  being  obvious,  if  one  may 
judge  from  the  perplexity  it  has  given  interpreters. 

Of  a  like  nature  are  the  voices  of  the  seven  thunders,  and  the 
prohibition  to  write  their  prophecy.  What  imaginable  motive 
could  have  prompted  the  introduction  of  such  an  incident,  had 
the  scene  of  which  it  is  a  part  been,  not  truly  symbolic  of 
agents  and  actions,  but  the  mere  work  of  the  writer's  fancy  ?  It 
has  been  generally  thought  to  contribute  nothing  to  the  progress 
of  the  revelation,  but  rather  merely  to  baffle  excited  curiosity, 
and  embarrass  the  reader  with  a  feeling  of  disappointment. 

It  is  incredible  also  that  the  author,  had  he  written  the  work 
without  inspiration,  and  for  the  mere  purpose  of  displaying  his 
genius,  would  have  represented  himself  as  falling  down  to  wor- 
ship the  interpreting  angel.  It  were  gratuitously  to  exhibit  him- 
self as  betrayed  into  a  species  of  that  creature-homage  which  he 
represents  as  the  characteristic  of  apostates,  and  debarring  from 
the  kingdom  of  the  Redeemer. 

XL  All  the  doctrines  and  sentiments  of  the  Apocalypse  are 
ccordant  with  the  other  Scriptures,  and  exhibit  that  elevation  and 
grandeur  which  are  peculiar  to  inspired  writings. 

Such  eminently  are  the  views  which  it  displays  of  the  majesty 
f  God,  his  omnipotence,  his  omniscience,  the  sanctity  of  his 
rights,  the  inflexiblencss  of  his  justice,  the  subordination  to  him 
of  the  universe,  the  sacrifice  and  exaltation  of  Christ,  the  won- 
derfulness  of  his  love,  the  aims  of  his  providence,  the  nature  and 
beauty  of  his  designs,  the  characteristics  of  his  redeemed  people, 
the  relations  of  his  work  to  the  intelligent  universe,  the  grandeur 
of  the  results  that  are  to  mark  its  everlasting  progress.  It  pre- 
sents no  inconsistency  with  the  other  parts  of  the  sacred  word. 
It  sinks  in  no  instance  below  the  dignity  of  the  subject  of  which 
it  treats.  It  soars  above  every  other  work  of  inspiration,  exhibits 
in  each  stroke  effulgent  proofs  of  its  divine  origin,  and  is  worthy 
the  all-perfect  wisdom  and  benignity  of  the  Deity.  To  suppose 
a  work  fraught  in  an  unexampled  degree  with  these  lofty  char- 
acters, can  be  the  contrivance  of  mere  art  and  fraud,  were  sole- 
cistical  and  monstrous  in  the  extreme  : — It  were  to  ascribe  to 
depravity  the  display  of  infinite  rectitude,  and  the  most  majestic 
wUdom  to  weakncfis  and  fi)llv. 


RECEPTION  OF  THE  APOCALYPSE.  19 

XII.  To  these  considerations,  its  immeasurable  elevation 
above  the  uninspired  writings  of  the  period  in  which  it  appeared 
and  the  following  ages,  may  be  added  as  a  further  proof  that  it 
cannot  have  sprung  from  the  unassisted  powers  of  man. 

Of  all  the  ancient  religious  writings  that  have  descended  to  us, 
there  are  none  perhaps  that  exhibit  a  more  deplorable  contrast  to 
the  Apocalypse,  than  those  which  are  usually  ascribed  to  the 
apostolic  fathers,  with  the  exception  of  the  letters  of  Clemens  and 
Polycarp  generally  supposed  to  be  genuine,  which  with  little 
force  of  thought  or  elevation  of  views,  have  still  the  merit  of 
simplicity  and  consistency  with  the  gospel.  After  a  large  sub- 
traction from  the  others  of  the  errors  and  weaknesses  with 
which  they  are  marked,  as  the  work,  in  the  letters  of  Ignatius 
at  least,  of  interpolators  and  forgers,  not  a  trace  appears  in  the 
remainder,  of  the  truth,  the  largeness,  the  dignity,  the  harmony 
of  thought  that  distinguish  the  Apocalypse.  So  far  from  it,  they 
are  among  the  weakest  of  human  compositions,  vague,  confused, 
illogical,  inflated,  absurd,  and  often  false  and  impious,  the  pro- 
ductions manifestly  of  feeble,  vain,  and  ignorant  minds,  most  un- 
just to  religion  and  discreditable  to  the  church. 


II.  RECEPTION  OF  THE  APOCALYPSE  BY  THE  CHURCH. 

The  proofs  of  its  inspiration  thus  graven  on  its  whole  structure, 
are  corroborated  by  its  reception  in  the  church.  It  is  expressly 
ascribed  by  the  earliest  ecclesiastical  authors  whose  writings  are 
of  authority,  to  the  apostle  John,  and  said  to  have  been  acknowl- 
edged as  his  by  others  whose  works  have  not  come  down  to  our 
age.  Thus  Papias  who  was  a  cotemporary  and  hearer  of  the 
apostle,  is  represented  by  Eusebius  as  having  held,  agreeably  to 
chapter  xx.  4.  5,  that  Christ  is  to  reign  on  the  earth  a  thousand 
years  after  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  ;^  and  by  Andrew 
bishop  of  Cffisarea  Cappadocia  of  the  fifth  century,  to  have  given 
his  testimony  to  its  inspiration.^  Justin,  who  suffered  mar- 
tyrdom in  the  year  163  or  164,  and  wrote  his  dialogue  with  Try- 
pho  according  to  Pagi  in  ISQ,-^  received  it  as  the  work  of  John.'' 
Irenaeus,  whose  birth  is  generally  referred  to  the  first  quarter  of 
the  second  century,  and  who  lived  to  its  close,  exhibits  the  apos- 
tle John  as  its  author,  and  represents  it  as  revealed  no  long  pe- 

'  Eusebii  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  iii.  cap.  39. 

^  Micliaelis'Iutrod.  N.  Test.  chap.  33. 

^  Crit.  in  Baron,  A.  D.  148,  No.  o. 

*  Dial,  ciun  Try-ph.  cap  81.     Eusebii  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  iv.  c.  18. 


20  "  THE    APOCALYPSE    NOT    A    POEM. 

riod  before,  but  almost  in  his  own  age,  toward  the  end  of  the  reign 
of  Domitian,^  which  ternriinated  September  18th,  in  the  year  95 
or  96.^  Mehto,  bishop  of  Sardis  in  Lydia,  who  Hved  about  the 
year  170,  wrote  a  comment  on  it.^  It  was  quoted  by  Tiieophi- 
lus,  bishop  of  Antioch,  of  the  same  period  ;*  and  also  by  the 
churches  of  Vienne  and  Lyons  in  the  year  177  in  their  epistle  to 
the  churches  of  Asia  and  Phrygia.^  It  was  recognised  conspic- 
uously by  Clemens  of  Alexandria,^  and  Tertullian  who  flourish- 
ed at  the  close  of  the  second  century  ;'''  and  though  questioned,  or 
rejected  by  some  few  persons  of  the  following  age,  on  the  ground 
of  its  style  and  predictions,  not  from  a  want  of  external  testimo- 
ny,^ it  has  ever  since  been  held  by  the  church  as  a  part  of  the 
sacred  canon. 

III.    THE  APOCALYPSE  NOT  A  POEM. 

EicHHORN  regarded  the  Apocalypse  as  a  poetic  drama.  It  has 
no  characteristic,  however,  that  entitles  it  to  be  considered  a  poem. 
It  is  wholly  without  the  rhythm  and  naodulation  which  are  the  dis- 
tinguishing elements  of  poetry.  A  composition  can  no  more  be 
a  poem  without  measure  and  harmony,  than  a  succession  of  sounds 
can  be  a  tune,  without  bearing  any  musical  relation  to  each  other. 

The  exaltation  of  inanimate  and  inferior  things  into  the  rank  of 
intelligences  by  personification,  ascribing  to  them  faculties,  dis- 
positions and  agencies,  as  men,  angels  or  demons,  is  a  conspic- 
uous characteristic  of  poetry.  But  the  symbolizalions  of  the 
Apocalypse  are  the  converse  of  that  figure.  Instead  of  personi- 
fying faculties,  elements,  or  other  natural  objects,  it  exhibits  or- 
ders and  successions  of  men,  nations,  and  rulers,  by  unintelligent 
existences,  as  brutes,  monsters,  the  earth,  the  sea,  the  air,  moun- 
tains ;  and  the  agencies  of  such  combinations  of  men,  by  those  of 
storms,  falling  stars,  earthquakes,  and  volcanoes.  There  are  no 
two  species  of  composition,  therefore,  more  unlike.  To  call  this 
symbolic  representation  a  poem,  is  as  incorrect  as  it  were  to  ap- 
ply that  denomination  to  the  hieroglyphs  of  an  Egyptian  ob- 
elisk, or  to  regard  the  pictorial  illustrations  of  the  scenery,  actors 
and  actions  of  a  poem,  as  the  poem  itself. 

'  Euscbii  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  v.  c.  8. 

^  Pagi  refers  his  death  to  the  year  96.  Dr.  Jarvis,  Introd.  Hist.  Churcli,  p.  322  to  95. 

'  Eusebii  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  iv.  c.  2G. 

*  Eusebii  Eccl.  I  list.  lib.  iv.  c.  24. 
^  Eusebii  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  v.  c.  1. 

*  Stromat.  lib.  vi.  p.  667.     Pffidagog,  lib.  ii.  c.  12,  p.  207. 

''  Adver.  Marcioiiein,  lib.  iii.  c.  14.  Lib.  iv.  c.  5.  Do  Pra;scrip.  HtEret.  c.  33. 

*  Eusebii  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  vii.  c.  25.     Lardaer's  Credibility,  vol.  v.  chap,  xxii 


THE  APOCALYPSE  NOT  A  POEAI.  21 

The  Apocalypse  is  almost  wliolly  without  the  embelUshmcnts 
that  are  characteristic  of  poetry.  There  is  no  instance  in  it  of 
personification.  It  has  not  in  the  symbohc  parts  a  single  meta- 
phor, except  in  the  titles  of  the  Redeemer.  It  has  but  few  com- 
parisons, and  those  of  the  simplest  kinds,  as  of  the  voice  of  the 
Son  of  God  to  a  trumpet  and  the  sound  of  many  waters,  his  eyes 
to  a  flame  of  fire,  his  countenance  to  the  sun,  his  hair  to  wool 
and  snow,  his  feet  to  fine  brass,  the  faintness  with  which  the  spec- 
tacle struck  the  apostle  to  death,  and  others  of  the  like  nature, 
chiefly  in  the  letters  to  the  churches,  and  in  the  fourth,  ninth,  and 
tenth  chapters. 

The  Apocalypse  is  a  description  in  prose  of  symbolic  agents, 
actions  and  effects,  exhibited  in  vision  to  the  eye  of  the  apostle, 
and  the  recital  of  voices  he  heard  ;  and  is  no  more  entitled  there- 
fore to  be  denominated  a  poem,  than  a  description  in  prose,  or  a 
pictorial  representation  is,  of  the  figures  on  a  triumphal  arch,  or 
the  actors,  actions  and  scenes  of  the  Iliad  or  Paradise  Lost. 

The  fancy  of  Mr.  Stuart  that  the  Apocalypse  is  an  epopee,  is 
a  still  greater  error  than  that  of  Eichhorn,  as  it  overlooks  the  rep- 
resentative character  of  its  actors  and  actions.  In  a  drama  one 
set  of  persons  acts  in  the  place  of  another.  But  nothing  of  that 
nature  is  known  in  the  epopee,  which  is  historical  simply,  and  is 
either  related  by  the  poet,  or  represented  as  recited  by  actors  and 
spectators  of  the  scenes  which  it  describes.  It  never  personates 
one  set  of  agents  by  another  even  of  the  same  species  ;  and  still 
more  emphatically,  never  like  the  Apocalypse,  exhibits  agents  of 
one  class  by  those  of  another.  There  is  no  species  of  poetry  to 
which  the  Apocalypse  bears  a  less  resemblance  than  the  epopee. 

These  attempts  to  dignify  it  by  appropriating  to  it  titles  of  hu- 
man works  with  which  it  has  no  affinity,  are  extremely  misjudged. 
So  far  from  illustrating  or  exaUing,  they  obscure  and  degrade  it; 
and  instead  of  indicating  superior  intelligence  and  taste  in  their 
authors,  bespeak  an  inacquaintance  with  the  nature  of  poetry  as 
well  as  of  symbolization.  They  are  fraught  also  with  a  denial  of 
the  miraculousness  of  the  visions,  and  thence  of  their  title  to  be 
regarded  as  the  work  of  inspiration.  Mr.  Stuart  as  well  as  Eich- 
horn, treats  the  symbols,  which  he  perpetually  confounds  with 
personifications,  metaphors  and  similes,  as  the  contrivance  of  the 
writer,  and  designed  chiefly  to  give  pleasure  to  the  passions  and 
fancies  of  his  readers.  But  that  is  directly  to  contradict  the  apos- 
tle, and  assume  that  he  was  guilty  of  a  misrepresentation  in  the 
pretence  that  the  symbols  were  exhibited  to  him  in  vision.  No 
asseveration  could  be  niore  false  and  deceptive,  than  that  he  be- 


22  THE    LAWS    OF    SYMBOLIC    REPRESENTATION. 

held  the  Son  of  God,  as  he  is  dehneated  in  the  first  vision,  and 
heard  from  him  the  utterances  which  are  ascribed  to  him,  if  in- 
stead of  beholding  such  a  vision,  it  was  the  work  of  his  mere  fan- 
cy ;  while  on  the  other  hand  if  he  beheld  such  a  vision,  no  room 
existed  without  an  equal  violation  of  truth,  for  the  introduction  in 
tiie  delineation  of  it,  of  any  fanciful  additions.  But  the  apostle 
expressly  asserts  that  that  to  which  he  gave  his  testimony  in  the 
Apocalypse,  was  that  which  he  saw  and  heard  ;  and  so  far  from 
being  the  inventor  of  the  symbols,  and  decorating  them  with  their 
accompaniments  for  the  purpose  of  gratifying  the  taste  of  his  read- 
ers, he  exhibits  himself  as  unaware  of  their  full  design,  and  as 
needing  and  enjoying  the  aid  of  an  angel  to  unfold  the  principle 
on  which  they  are  employed,  and  interpret  their  significance.  To 
suppose  him,  therefore,  guilty  in  these  representations,  of  an  at- 
tempt to  betray  his  readers  into  the  belief,  that  mere  pictures 
drawn  by  his  fancy,  were  the  work  of  the  Almighty,  is  to  suppose 
him  wholly  devoid  of  reverence  toward  God,  and  truth  toward 
men,  and  exhibit  his  pretence  to  inspiration  as  deceptive. 

IV.  THE  LAWS  OF  SYMBOLIC  REPRESENTATION. 

The  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  Apocalypse  is,  that 
it  foreshadows  what  it  reveals,  not  by  words,  like  ordinary 
prophecies,  but  by  representative  agents  and  phenomena  exhib- 
ited to  the  senses  of  the  apostle.  A  knowledge  of  the  prin- 
ciple on  which  those  signs  are  used,  is  indispensable  therefore 
in  order  to  their  interpretation.  To  overlook  or  misconceive  it, 
is  as  fatal  to  the  interpreter,  as  a  similar  negligence  or  error 
were  to  the  just  construction  of  ordinary  language.  He  would 
no  more  necessarily  misjudge,  who  should  regard  written  words, 
as  signs  of  something  else  than  the  significant  voices  which 
they  represent,  than  he  errs  in  the  solution  of  symbols,  who 
misconceives  the  species  of  objects  they  are  employed  to 
denote. 

What  then  is  the  principle  of  symbolization  ?  What  is  the 
law  by  which  one  set  of  agents  and  phenomena,  is  used  in  the 
place  of  another,  in  making  to  the  senses  a  mystical  representa- 
tion of  the  future  ?  Are  the  signs  chosen  from  the  class  of 
objects  which  they  are  employed  to  represent,  and  on  the  ground 
of  a  similarity  of  nature  ;  or  from  another  but  a  resemhlinu:  class, 
and  on  the  ground  of  analogy,  or  from  Loth  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  events  foreshown  ? — the  question  it  ■will  soon  be 
seen,  on  which  the  whole  interpretation  turns.     For  the  priueiplo 


THE  LAWS  OF  SYMBOLIC  REPRESENTATION.        23 

on  which  tliey  are  used,  is  doubtless,  in  like  cases,  always  the  same. 
If  a  victorious  warrior  be  a  representative  of  bodies  and  succes- 
sions of  conquering  warriors ;  if  a  civil  magistrate  be  a  symbol  of  a 
combination  or  series  of  civil  magistrates  of  a  similar  character; — 
then  must  an  animal  also  be  taken  as  a  precursor  of  a  herd  and  suc- 
cession of  similar  animals ;  and  monster  shapes  like  the  locusts  and 
horsemen  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  trumpets,  and  the  seven-headed 
and  two-horned  wild  beasts,  be  regarded  as  foreshowing  the 
appearance  on  the  theatre  of  the  world,  of  races  of  similar 
monsters.  Otherwise  there  can  be  no  uniform  law  of  symbol- 
ization,  and  thence  no  certainty  of  interpretation.  It  were  as 
incompatible  with  a  demonstrable  meaning,  that  symbols  should 
be  used  without  any  rule  of  relationship  or  significance  ;  as  that 
sounds,  or  letters  and  written  words,  the  representatives  of 
sounds,  should  be  used  without  any  established  and  uniform 
meaning.  As  the  letters  of  tiie  alphabet,  had  they  no  fixed 
character  either  as  consonants  or  vowels,  and  were  no  more 
marks  of  one  set  of  vocal  accents  than  another,  could  not  serve 
as  signs  of  the  voice,  nor  be  instruments  of  representing  audible 
expressions  of  thought  and  feeling ;  and  as  written  words  could 
form  no  intelligible  language,  had  they  no  settled  meaning,  and 
sustained  no  miiform  relations  to  each  other ;  so  neither  can  the 
symbols  of  prophecy,  if  the  principle  on  which  they  proceed,  be 
not  in  like  cases  the  same.  To  suppose  their  relationship  to  the 
objects  which  they  represent  is  without  any  uniformity,  is  to 
suppose  there  is  no  clue  whatever  to  their  meaning.  To  assume 
that  their  relations  in  similar  cases  are  precisely  the  reverse  of 
each  other,  is  to  assume  that  true  and  false  constructions  are 
equally  probable.  The  principle  of  representation  therefore, — 
the  relation  of  the  sign  to  the  thing  signified,  is  undoubtedly  in 
all  like  cases  the  same,  not  various  and  opposite  ;  and  the  rules 
of  construction  as  vmiversal,  as  certain,  and  as  simple,  as  are  the 
laws  of  the  signs  by  which  the  voice  is  represented. 

But  that  relation  clearly  is  not  usually  a  similarity  of  nature. 
A  wild  beast  is  not  a  representative  of  a  herd  or  succession  of 
wild  beasts  of  the  same  species.  There  are  no  seven-headed 
and  ten-horned  monsters  in  the  forests  or  cultivated  tracts  of  the 
Roman  empire  ;  nor  horses  with  lions'  heads,  and  tails  hung 
with  a  growth  of  serpents.  A  symbolic  sea  in  like  manner,  is 
not  a  representative  of  a  literal  sea  ;  nor  a  fountain  or  river,  of 
some  real  fountain  or  stream  of  the  apocalyptic  earth.  It  were 
as  erroneous  and  absurd  to  impute  to  the  symbols  such  a  rela 
tionship  in  this  instance,  as  in  the  former.     It  were  to  miscon 


24        THE  LAWS  OF  SYMBOLIC  REPRESENTATION. 

ceive  the  nature  of  s3niibolization,  as  he  would  misconceive  the 
nature  of  a  simile,  who  should  regard  it  as  a  comparison  of  a 
thing  with  itself,  instead  of  some  other  object  of  an  analogous 
nature — as  a  lion  with  a  lion,  a  tempest  with  a  tempest ;  instead 
of  man  or  some  other  creature,  in  respect  to  courage  with  a 
lion,  or  passion  with  a  whirlwind.  It  were  entirely  to  set  aside 
the  mysteriousness  of  symbolization,  and  treat  it  as  merely 
equivalent  to  a  verbal  description  of  the  things  which  it  denotes. 
If  a  fountain  be  the  representative  of  a  fountain,  what  enigma 
is  there  in  the  symbolization  ?  What  is  the  object  of  presenting 
it  in  vision  ?  Why  is  not  a  verbal  description  as  suitable  a 
means  of  foreshowing  it,  as  a  visible  exhibition  ?  If  the  drunk- 
en sorceress  borne  on  the  wild  beast,  be  a  precursor  of  a  suc- 
cession of  such  sorceresses  ;  what  mystery  is  there  in  the  sign  ? 
What  veil  is  left  on  the  meaning  ?  What  peculiar  need  is  there 
of  wisdom  to  its  interpretation  ?  But  that  that  is  not  the  rela- 
tion usually  of  the  sign  to  the  thing  signified,  we  know  by  the 
interpretation  given  of  many  of  the  symbols  by  the  great  Re- 
vealer  himself,  and  the  angels.  A  star  we  are  told  by  the  Re- 
deemer, is  a  symbol  of  the  messenger  or  minister  of  a  church, 
not  of  a  succession  of  stars  ;  and  a  candlestick  of  a  church 
itself,  not  of  a  multitude  or  series  of  candlesticks.  A  horn 
represents  a  succession  of  kings,  and  the  drunken  sorceress,  a 
great  combination  of  nationalized  religious  teachers  and  rulers. 
The  ground  of  symbolization  is  indisputably  therefore,  not  a 
similarity  of  nature,  but  analogy ; — general  resemblances  by 
which  objects  of  one  species,  may  be  employed  to  represent 
those  of  anolhei'.  A  combination  of  bloody  and  tyrannical 
rulers,  is  symbolized  by  a  ferocious  Avild  beast,  because  their 
temper  and  agency  toward  individuals,  communities,  and  na- 
tions, is  like  that  of  a  ravenous  brute,  that  kills  and  devours  in- 
ferior and  harmless  animals.  A  vast  multitude  united  in  a  single 
community,  or  under  one  government,  is  represented  by  a  sea, 
because  of  its  resemblance  to  such  a  collection  of  waters,  and 
relationship  to  inferior  and  tributary  communities,  like  that  of  a 
sea  to  the  fountains  and  streams  that  devolve  into  it ;  while 
lesser  communities,  and  distant  dependent  tribes,  are  symbolized 
by  streams  and  fountains,  because  of  their  analogous  relations 
to  some  great  central  community  toward  which  they  tend.  In 
like  manner  a  volcanic  mountain  precipitated  into  the  sea,  pro- 
jecting its  burning  elements  over  the  waters,  destroying  the  hsh, 
and  firing  the  ships,  is  employed  to  symbolize  the  intrusion  into 
a  great  empire  of  a  hostile  nation,  establishing  a  separate  gov- 


THE  LAWS  OF  SYMBOLIC  REPRESENTATION.        25 

ernment,  and  sending  out  from  its  capital  devastating  expeditions 
into  the  neighboring  territoi'ies. 

The  symbols  of  the  Apocalypse,  and  of  all  the  prophets,  are 
accordingly  taken  in  all  cases,  where  the  subject  is  of  a  nature 
to  admit  it,  from  objects  or  phenomena  of  a  different  class  from 
those  which  they  are  employed  to  represent,  but  that  present 
striking  resemblances  in  their  chief  characteristics  ;  and  tiie  fact 
that  they  are  drawn  from  one  department,  whether  of  civil  life, 
the  animal  kingdom,  or  the  material  universe,  which  may  serve 
as  a  representative  of  another,  is  an  infallible  token  that  they 
are  signs,  not  of  things  in  that  department,  but  of  something 
analogous  in  some  other  sphere  of  the  religious  or  civil  world. 
Thus  when  symbols  like  the  first  four  seals,  are  drawn  from  the 
military  and  civil  chiefs  of  the  Roman  empire,  they  denote,  not 
such  actors  and  actions  in  that  civil  and  military  state,  but  anal- 
ogous agents  and  agencies  in  some  other  body  of  men,  em- 
bracing like  that  empire,  all  varieties  of  good  and  bad,  and  sus- 
taining resembling  relations  to  each  other ;  and  in  those  in- 
stances denote  the  ministers  of  the  church.  When  like  the 
first  four  trumpets,  they  are  drawn  from  the  material  universe, 
they  indicate  analogous  agents  and  events  in  the  world  of  men  ; 
and  in  those  instances  in  the  Roman  and  neighboring  civil  and 
military  empires.  Babylon  the  metropolis  of  an  idolatrous  per- 
secuting kingdom,  is  employed  as  a  symbol  of  a  resembling 
organization  of  apostate  and  persecuting  teachers  professing  to 
be  true  ministers  of  God.  A  woman  clothed  in  a  robe  of  sun- 
light, crowned  with  stars,  crying  out  in  the  struggles  of  child- 
birth, and  bearing  one  who  should  rule  the  nations,  is  a  symbol 
of  the  church  in  fervent  desire  and  successful  endeavor  that 
one  of  her  offspring  may  be  advanced  to  the  throne  of  the  em- 
pire, and  give  release  from  persecution.  When  the  relation  of 
the  teachers  and  rulers  of  the  nationalized  church  to  the  civil 
powers  of  the  empire,  during  a  period  of  persecution,  is  to  bo 
represented,  a  drunken  sorceress  is  exhibited  as  borne  by  a 
monster  wild  beast,  the  symbol  of  the  rulers  of  that  empire. 
The  woman  clothed  in  sunlight,  driven  from  society  into  a 
desert,  is  the  emblem  of  the  true  people  of  God  frowned  on 
and  persecuted  by  the  antichristian  rulers,  and  compelled  to 
refrain  from  the  expression  of  their  evangelical  faith  before  the 
world,  and  retire  into  seclusion.  The  true  ministers  and  wor- 
shippers in  their  relations  as  assertors  and  vindicators  of  the 
gospel  in  opposition  to  antichrist,  are  symbohzed  by  the  wit- 
nesses clothed  in  sackcloth,  bearing  testimony  to  the  truth,  and 

4 


26  THE    LAWS    OF    SYMBOLIC    REPRESENTATION. 

enduring  persecution  and  martyrdom  ;  while  faithful  ministers 
and  true  servants  of  God,  proclaiming  great  truths,  assailing  and 
defeating  antichrist,  and  fulfilling  important  offices  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom,  are  denoted  by  angels 
descending  from  the  sky. 

Similar  relations  of  the  representative  agents  and  agencies  to 
those  that  are  represented,  are  seen  in  most  other  symbols.  Stars 
and  lamps  that  radiate  light  on  the  eye,  are  used  to  denote 
agents  that  communicate  spiritual  light  to  the  mind,  chap.  i.  20, 
iv.  5  ;  the  influence  of  an  irritating  material  cause  on  the  body, 
to  indicate  the  agency  of  harassing  political  causes  on  the  mind, 
xvi.  2 ;  the  torturing  influence  of  poisonous  animals  on  the 
body,  to  symbolize  the  torturing  inflictions  on  the  church  of 
cruel  conquerors  who  exercise  an  antagonist  religion,  ix.  10; 
and  the  deadly  agency  of  venomous  animals,  to  represent  the 
deadly  influence  of  false  religious  teachers,  ix.  19,  20.  The 
agency  of  material  causes  destroying  the  life  of  animals,  is  em- 
ployed to  denote  the  violent  agency  of  men  in  destroying  fellow- 
men,  xvi.  3,  4 ;  the  violent  destructive  action  of  powerful 
physical  agents  on  the  vegetable  world,  to  symbolize  the  violent 
and  resistless  agency  of  masses  of  men  destroying  classes  and 
multitudes  in  the  political  world,  viii.  7 ;  the  tinging  of  symbols 
of  communities  with  blood,  to  denote  that  those  whom  they  re- 
present are  to  become  besmeared  with  blood  by  the  slaughter  of 
one  another,  or  of  foreign  masses  invading  or  repelling  them, 
xvi.  3,  4,  5  ;  and  the  infusion  of  a  deadly  element  into  the  sym- 
bol of  communities,  to  indicate  the  generation  in  them  of  dispo- 
sitions prompting  them  to  a  destructive  agency  on  other  com- 
munities, viii.  10,  11. 

This  law  of  analogy  in  characteristics  of  nature  and  agency, 
in  contradistinction  from  a  sameness  of  species,  thus  holds 
generally  in  the  Apocalypse.  The  only  deviations  in  any  degree 
are,  when  the  agents  to  be  represented  are  of  a  nature  that  can- 
not properly  be  symbolized  by  any  thing  else  than  themselves, 
such  as  separate  spirits,  saints  raised  from  the  dead,  the  deity, 
the  incarnate  Word  in  his  station  as  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of 
lords.  There  is  obviously  nothing  in  the  whole  circle  of  the 
social  or  material  world,  that  can  properly  symbolize  the  spirits 
of  the  martyrs.  There  is  no  other  order  of  beings  that  has 
undergone  an  analogous  change  in  its  mode  of  existence.  There 
is  no  other  within  our  knowledge  capable  of  such  a  change  ; 
and  to  have  employed  an  arbitrar)'-  sign,  that  sustained  no  re- 
semblance   to   tliem.  would  not  only  have  misled  or  given  no 


THE    LAWS    OF    SYMBOLIC    REPRESENTATION.  27 

information  whatever,  but  would  have  thrown  uncertainty  over 
the  whole  system  of  symbolization  ;  inasmuch  as  analogy  or 
likeness  would  have  ceased  to  be  uniformly  its  characteristic. 
If  there  were  an  instance  in  which  the  use  of  the  sign  to  denote 
the  thing  signified,  was  not  founded  on  resemblance,  and  no  rea- 
son could  be  discerned  for  the  choice  of  such  a  sign  in  that  instance, 
what  assui-ance  could  be  felt,  that  resemblance  is  the  principle  of 
symbolization,  and  furnishes  the  clue  to  its  meaning?  No  arbi- 
trary sign  then  could  liave  answered  the  end,  as  there  would  have 
been  no  key  to  the  signification  :  nor  could  have  been  safe,  as  it 
would  have  rendered  the  relation  of  all  other  symbols  doubtful 
to  the  things  represented  by  them.  From  the  necessities  of  the 
case  therefore,  in  order  to  their  representation  to  the  senses  of 
the  prophet,  the  disembodied  martyrs  appear  in  their  own  persons ; 
and  to  guard  the  student  of  the  vision  against  interpreting  them 
like  other  symbols,  as  representatives  by  analogy,  they  are  ex- 
pressly declared  to  be  the  spirits  of  those  who  had  been  slain 
for  the  word  of  God  and  for  the  testimony  which  they  held,  and 
exhibited  as  uttering  sentiments,  and  receiving  an  answer,  ap- 
propriate to  that  relation  to  God.  A  similar  reason  exists  in  all 
the  other  instances,  for  the  introduction  in  person  of  the  beings 
Avhom  the  visions  represent :  as  of  the  Deity,  the  incarnate 
Word,  the  martyrs  and  saints  raised  from  the  dead,  and  Satan. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  universe  presenting  any  analogy  to  the 
Selfexistent,  the  Redeemer  in  his  glorified  human  nature  and 
exaltation  to  supreme  dominion,  the  saints  raised  from  the  dead 
incorruptible  and  glorious,  nor  the  great  prince  of  fallen  angels, 
or  his  subordinates.  These  deviations  from  the  general  law  of 
symbolization  therefore,  occasioned  as  they  thus  are  by  an  im- 
possibility of  following  it  in  these  instances,  and  being  the  only 
mode  of  deviation  that  offers  it  no  contradiction,  manifestly  sup- 
port, instead  of  weakening  it,  and  confirm  the  propriety  of  ad- 
hering to  it  in  the  construction  of  all  other  symbols.  To  depart 
from  it,  is  as  fatal  and  as  absurd,  as  it  were  to  violate  any  other 
invariable  and  important  law  of  language.  It  would  be  uni- 
versally felt  to  be  an  error,  were  an  interpreter,  in  endeavoring  to 
unfold  the  allegories  of  the  prophets,  to  overlook  the  fact  that 
they  are  all  founded  on  one  principle,  and  to  be  construed  by 
one  rule, — that  of  an  analogy  between  the  objects  they  paint  to 
the  eye  and  fancy,  and  another  class  which  they  are  employed 
to  illustrate  ;  and  to  construe  some,  as  having  no  representative 
significance,  and  others  as  truly  allegorical.  Yet  such  an  inter- 
preter were  not  more  imskilful,  nor  more  inconsistent  with  him- 


28        THE  LAWS  OF  SYMBOLIC  REPRESENTATION. 

self,  than  he  who  pursues  a  similar  course  in  the  solution  of 
prophetic  symbols,  treating  some  of  them  without  any  reason, 
as  mere  signs  of  agents  or  events  like  themselves,  and  others  as 
representatives  of  agents  and  events  of  a  different  and  analo- 
gous nature. 

This,  then,  is  the  first  great  law  of  symbolization  ;  the  most 
extensive  in  its  application,  and  the  most  essential  to  be  under- 
stood. Unhappily,  however,  tiiough  graven  in  the  most  con- 
spicuous characters  on  every  page  of  the  Apocalypse,  it  has  not 
been  the  guide  of  interpreters,  nor  even  attracted  their  notice. 
Had  it  been  discerned  and  obeyed,  it  would  have  withheld  them 
from  a  large  portion  of  the  solutions,  which  they  have  deemed  of 
the  utmost  significance,  and  relied  on  with  the  greatest  confi- 
dence. It  overturns  innumerable  shadowy  fabrics,  which  genius 
and  learning  have  erected,  and  endeavored  to  invest  with  the  air 
of  truth,  as 

The  sword  of  Micliael  smites  and  fells 
Squadrons  at  once. 

Had  it,  for  example,  been  perceived  that  symbols  drawn  from 
the  rulers  of  the  Roman  empire,  are  not  representatives  of  agents 
absolutely  like  themselves,  but  analogous  persons  in  some  other 
body  of  men,  having  a  resemblance  to  the  population  of  that  em- 
pire, as  a  vast  community  of  various  characters,  and  sustaining 
a  common  relation  to  laws,  teachers,  and  rulers,  it  would  have 
withheld  them  from  looking  to  the  military  or  civil  history  of 
Rome  for  the  verification  of  those  symbols  ;  it  being  as  prepos- 
terous to  turn  in  that  direction  for  the  agents  and  events  denoted 
by  them,  as  it  were  to  look  to  a  vineyard  for  the  agents  and  events 
denoted  by  the  allegory  of  Isaiah,  chap.  v. ;  or  to  an  eagle,  a  ce- 
dar, and  a  vine,  for  those  represented  in  the  allegory  of  Ezekiel, 
chap.  xvii.  Yet,  such  is  the  error  of  Grotius,  Dr.  Hammond, 
Eichhorn,  Rosenmuller,  and  others,  in  interpreting  the  first,  third, 
and  fourth  seals  of  the  insurrections  and  wars  of  the  Jews  ;  and 
of  Mr.  Brightman,.  Mr.  Mede,  Dr.  More,  Mr.  Winston,  Sir  Isaac 
Newton,  Bishop  Newton,  Mr.  Faber,  Mr.  Elliott,  and  many  oth- 
ers, in  referring  them  to  other  military  and  civil  actors  and  events 
of  the  Roman  empire. 

There  are  several  subordinate  laws  of  great  importance,  to 
which  the  law  of  analogy  gives  birth, 

II.  When  intelligent  beings  or  creatures  of  life  are  used  as 
symbols,  they  represent  intelligent  agents  ;  never  mere  abstrac- 
tions, actions,  or  qualities,  in  distinction  from  beings  of  whom 


THE  LAWS  OF  SYMBOLIC  REPRESENTATION.  29 

ihey  are  predicable.  This  is  obviously  required  by  analogy. 
What  resemblance  is  there  between  a  creator,  and  the  work  which 
he  creates  ;  an  agent,  and  the  acts  which  he  exerts  ;  a  being  of 
whom  a  faculty  or  virtue  is  predicable,  and  an  abstract  conception 
of  that  faculty  or  virtue.  There  manifestly  are  no  things  in  the 
whole  circle  of  existence  more  distantly  unlike,  and  whose  rela- 
tions are  more  emphatically  the  converse  of  each  other.  It  is 
equally  requisite,  also,  in  order  to  a  certainty  of  interpretation. 
As  several  of  those  symbols  are  indisputably  representatives  of 
intelligent  agents,  and  as  no  imperative  reason  can  be  conceived 
for  a  deviation  from  that  usage,  a  departure  in  a  single  instance 
would  throw  a  cloud  of  doubt  over  every  other  similar  symbol. 

That  this  is  invariably  the  law,  is  indisputably  clear,  moreover, 
from  the  fact  that  in  every  instance  where  a  living  being  is  used 
as  a  symbol,  actions  are  predicated  of  it,  which  were  solecistical, 
were  that  which  it  denotes  an  action,  not  an  agent.  This  is  true 
not  only  of  human  and  angelic  symbols,  as  of  the  first  three  seals, 
the  majestic  shape  ascending  from  the  east  with  the  seal  of  God, 
the  giant  form,  clothed  in  a  cloud  and  circled  by  a  rainbow,  de- 
scending from  heaven  ;  of  monster  shapes  likewise,  as  the  lo- 
custs and  horsemen  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  trumpets,  the  seven- 
headed  dragon,  the  ten-horned  wild  beast,  and  the  beast  with  two 
horns,  but  also  of  the  spirits  of  the  martyrs  and  saints  in  the 
twentieth  chapter,  whom  many  interpreters  have  regarded  as 
representatives  of  actions  and  qualities,  rather  than  agents.  They 
are  as  indisputably  as  any  other  symbols  in  the  visions,  treated 
in  their  representative  character  as  persons.  They  are  not  only 
exhibited  as  having  at  a  former  period  acted  in  a  relation  to  the 
wild  beast,  uttered  a  testimony  for  God,  and  been  put  to  death, 
but  as  being  now  raised  from  the  dead,  and  as  reigning  as  kings 
with  Christ  a  thousand  years.  To  regard  them  as  mere  symbols 
of  characteristics,  such  as  the  courage,  patience,  or  fidelity  of 
martyrs,  is  moreover  to  reverse  the  whole  significance  of  the 
vision,  and  make  it  indicative  of  a  persecution  by  the  beast,  and 
false  prophet  of  the  faithful,  in  place  of  their  resurrection  from 
death,  exaltation  to  thrones,  and  reign  with  Christ  on  the  earth. 
A  patient  endurance  of  evil,  a  dauntless  courage,  an  inflexible 
adherence  to  the  faith,  amidst  the  greatest  trials  and  sufferings, 
such  as  were  displayed  by  the  martyrs,  can  only  be  exhibited  in 
conditions  of  reproach,  persecution,  and  martyrdom  like  theirs. 

111.  The  Son  of  God,  when  appearing  as  a  symbol,  is  a  repre- 
sentative only  of  his  own  person,  never  of  his  mere  agency,  the 
agency  of  the  Spirit,  or  an  act  of  providence.     There  is  no  anal- 


30         THE  LAWS  OF  SYMBOLIC  REPRESENTATION. 

ogy  between  liis  person  and  his  actions  ;  there  is  no  analogy  be- 
tween his  person  and  an  act  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  there  is  none 
between  hina,  and  an  event  of  providence.  To  regard  him 
as  the  representative  of  either  of  these,  were  therefore  not 
only  wholly  without  reason,  but  to  contradict  the  principle  of 
symbolization.  It  were  likewise  in  contradiction  to  the  reason 
that  he  appears  in  person  in  the  visions,  that  there  is  nothing 
ill  the  universe  that  can  properly  represent  his  nature  and  station 
as  the  King  of  kings  ;  and  finally,  that  he  represents  his  own 
person  only,  not  any  other  of  the  Godhead,  nor  his  own,  nor  any 
other  agency,  is  certain  from  the  fact,  that  in  each  vision  in  which 
he  appears,  he  is  shown  to  be  the  Word  of  God,  both  by  sym- 
bols of  his  attributes  and  office,  and  express  declarations  ;  and 
by  the  ascription  to  him  of  actions  that  are  peculiar  to  him  in  his 
exaltation  as  the  incarnate  King  of  kings. 

IV,  In  all  instances  where  beings  appearing  as  symbols  repre- 
sent their  own  persons,  it  is  clearly  shown  by  declarations  and 
descriptions  who  they  are. 

Thus  the  glorious  human  form  appearing  in  the  first  vision,  ex- 
pressly declares  himself  to  be  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega,  the  First 
and  the  Last,  who  had  been  dead  and  is  alive  for  evermore,  and 
has  the  keys  of  death  and  the  grave  ;  characters  that  belong  only 
to  the  incarnate  Word  in  his  exaltation  to  the  throne  of  the  uni- 
verse. The  disembodied  spirits  appearing  under  the  fifth  seal, 
are  said  to  be  the  souls  of  those  who  had  been  slain  for  the  word 
of  God,  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  ;  those  also  who  appear 
in  the  twentieth  chapter,  are  represented  as  having  lived  at  a  for- 
mer period  on  the  earth,  and  many  of  them  as  having  refused 
worship  to  the  wild  beast,  and  suffered  martyrdom ;  and  the 
dragon  of  the  twentieth  chapter  is  expressly  declared  to  be  the 
devil,  who  deceives  the  nations.  As  it  is  a  deviation  from  the 
law  of  analogy  that  these  beings  appear  as  the  representatives 
of  themselves,  care  is  thus  taken  to  guard  the  reader  against  the 
error  to  which  that  law  might  otherwise  have  led,  of  regarding 
them  as  representatives,  like  other  symbols,  of  analogous  agents. 

V.  When  purely  fictitious  agents  are  employed  as  symbols, 
they  are  exhibited  in  vision  to  the  prophet  acting  out  their  agency, 
and  invested  in  that  manner  with  a  sensible  existence.  Other- 
wise there  were  a  want  of  reality,  and  therefore  of  analogy,  in 
the  representation.  It  were  incongruous  to  employ  an  absolute 
non-existence,  to  foreshadow  a  real  one. 

This  is  an  invariable  law  accordingly  of  symbolization.  Not 
only  are  I  he  fictitious  representatives  of  the  Apocalypse,  such  as 


THE  LAWS  OF  SYMBOLIC  REPRESENTATION.  31 

the  locusts  and  horsemen  of  the  trumpets,  the  seven-headed  drag- 
on and  ten-horned  wild  beast,  and  the  beast  of  two  horns,  exhib- 
ited in  vision,  but  so  also  were  the  wild  beasts  of  Daniel,  the 
ima^e  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  the  symbolic  agents  of  Zechariah. 

VI.  When  the  real  persons  appearing  in  the  visions  are  exhib- 
ited with  symbolical  insignia  or  accompaniments,  the  uses 
ascribed  to  those  symbols  are  also  symbolical.  This  is  required 
by  analogy.  Thus  as  the  sword  proceeding  out  of  the  mouth  of 
the  Son  of  God,  is  a  symbol  of  the  organ  of  speech,  so  the  use 
ascribed  to  it  is  representative  of  the  sentence  of  death  he  is  to 
pronounce  on  his  enemies.  And  as  the  horse  on  which  he  is 
exhibited  in  the  nineteenth  chapter  is  a  symbol,  so  is  his  descent 
from  heaven  on  the  horse,  symbolic  of  a  descent  in  an  analogous 
manner,  suited  to  his  station  as  the  King  of  kings,  and  the  vic- 
tory he  is  to  achieve  over  his  foes. 

VII.  The  terms  in  which  the  symbols  and  their  actions  are 
described,  are  always  literal,  never  metaphorical;  and  of  propri- 
ety. To  unite  a  symbol  and  a  metaphor  in  the  same  expression, 
were  as  incongruous,  as  to  attempt  to  metaphorize  a  personifi- 
cation. 

VIII.  There  are  no  representative  agents  in  the  Apocalypse, 
except  those  that  are  exhibited  as  actors  in  the  visions.  Thus 
the  seven  churches  obviously  are  not  symbols.  The  letters  ad- 
dressed to  them  are  not  prophetic,  but  only  declaratory  of  the 
attributes,  rights,  will,  and  purposes  of  the  Redeemer.  No 
agency  is  ascribed  to  them  as  certainly  future.  They  are  only 
apprized  by  the  Saviour  of  his  perfect  knowledge  of  their  past 
and  present  character,  and  of  the  gifts  with  which  they  were  to 
be  rewarded  if  faithful ;  and  the  judgments  with  which  they  were 
to  be  overwhelmed  if  disobedient.  Neither  for  the  same  rea- 
sons, are  any  of  the  persons  mentioned  in  the  epistles  to  those 
churches  symbolic  ;  such  as  the  Jews,  Antipas,  false  prophets, 
Jezebel,  the  Nicolaitans,  and  Balaamites.  To  regard  them  as 
symbolic  were  to  overlook  the  distinction  between  symbols  and 
simple  history,  and  run  into  as  gross  an  error  as  it  were  to  treat 
symbolic  representatives,  as  like  ordinary  portraits  and  land- 
scapes, denoting  nothing  but  such  objects  and  agents  as  they 
present  to  the  eye. 

IX.  Though  nothing  in  the  ApoCiiIyi)se  is  representative,  ex- 
cept what  is  exhibited  in  vision,  yet  in  oilier  prophecies  symbols 
are  employed  that  were  not  shown  in  vision,  but  merely  dis- 
played in  verbal  description.  Tlicy,  however,  are  distinguished 
by  two  characteristics. 


32         THE  LAWS  OF  SYMBOLIC  REPRESENTATION. 

First.  The  symbolic  agents  are  such  as  were  known  to  the 
prophet  and  those  whom  he  addressed,  and  their  actions  and  phe- 
nomena such  as  are  natural.  Thus  the  chief  of  them  are  the  sun, 
the  moon,  meteors,  the  air,  the  earth,  the  sea,  rivers  and  foun- 
tains, a  city  :  and  the  phenomena  ascribed  to  them  such  as  are 
proper  to  those  objects  respectively,  such  as  obscuration  to  the 
sun,  dimness  and  bloodiness  to  the  moon,  a  fall  to  meteors,  light- 
nings, thunders,  darkness  to  the  atmosphere,  earthquakes  to  the 
land,  a  fall  to  a  city  ; — appearances  and  events,  which  being  real 
and  common,  a  visionary  exhibition  was  not  requisite  in  order  to 
a  knowledge  of  their  nature. 

Next.  They  are  accompanied  by  an  express  designation  of  the 
persons  or  communities  which  they  are  employed  to  repi^esent, 
and  always  exhibit  an  indisputable  mark  that  they  are  symbols, 
not  metaphors,  in  their  insusceptibility  of  conversion,  like  meta- 
phors, into  similes,  or  allegories,  which  differ  from  metaphors 
only  as  they  exhibit  the  particulars  of  resemblance  at  large,  and 
are  accompanied  by  a  notice  of  the  persons  or  subjects  which 
they  are  employed  to  illustrate.  Whether  a  prediction,  therefore, 
be  simply  metaphorical,  or  symbolic,  in  which,  like  the  visionary 
emblems  of  the  Apocalypse,  the  actors,  actions,  and  effects  are 
represented  by  agents  and  phenomena  of  a  different  species, 
may  be  determined  by  introducing  the  term  of  comparison.  If 
the  expression  may  be  translated  in  that  manner  into  a  mere 
simile,  without  varying  the  sense,  it  is  a  metaphor.  Thus  the 
meaning  of  the  metaphor,  Judah  is  a  lion's  whelp,  is  the  same  as 
of  the  simile,  Judah  is  like  a  lion's  whelp.  But  the  prediction 
of  Isaiah,  "  All  the  host  of  heaven  shall  be  dissolved,  and  the 
heaven  shall  be  rolled  together  as  a  scroll,  and  all  their  hosts 
shall  fall  down  as  the  leaf  falleth  off  from  the  vine,  and  as  a  fall- 
ing fig  from  the  fig-tree,"  is  as  obviously  symbolical,  as  no  term 
of  comparison  can  be  inserted  between  the  heavens  and  their 
hosts  and  the  events  predicted  of  them,  and  those  events  them- 
selves are  compared  to  a  different  class,  of  which  a  scroll,  the 
leaves  of  the  vine,  and  the  fruit  of  the  fig-tree  are  the  sub- 
jects. 

Similes  and  metaphors  are  founded  on  partial,  not  like  sym- 
bols on  general  resemblances  ;  and  are  used  only  for  illustration, 
not  as  representatives.  Types  are  founded  on  more  general  re- 
semblances, and  used  according  to  the  following  laws  :  — 

1.  No  mere  fictitious  agents  are  made  representatives  of  real 
agents  in  typical  predictions.  Nothing  out  of  the  circle  of  reali- 
ties is  used  as  an  emblem,  except  symbols  that  are  exhibited  in 


THE  LAWS  OF  SYMBOLIC  REPRESENTATION.         33 

vision,  and  endowed  in  that  manner  with  a  sensible  existence. 
A  mere  non-existence  cannot  represent  a  real  one. 

2.  No  person  is  exhibited  as  a  type  of  another,  except  in  a  re- 
lation or  station  which  he  has  himself  sustained.  Had  not  David 
been  a  king,  he  could  not  have  been  used  as  a  type  of  the  Mes- 
siah as  king.  Had  not  Elijah  been  a  prophet,  he  could  not  have 
been  employed  as  a  type  of  John  the  Baptist.  Had  not  Abraham 
been  a  believer,  he  could  not  have  served  as  a  representative  or 
exemplar  of  believers. 

3.  No  action  of  a  person  except  one  that  he  has  already  exert- 
ed, is  made  a  representative  of  an  analogous  act  of  another  person 
or  community,  and  for  a  similar  reason.  It  were  to  make  a 
nonentity  the  pattern  or  representative  of  a  reality.  A  return  of 
the  Jews,  for  example,  to  their  own  land,  cannot  be  made  a  type 
of  any  other  analogous  action,  either  of  that  or  any  other  people, 
unless  such  a  return  from  dispersion  have  actually  taken  place. 

4.  The  Son  of  God  in  his  exaltation,  is  never  exhibited  as  a 
type  or  representative  of  any  other  being ;  nor  any  action  of  his, 
as  a  type  of  the  action  of  any  other  being.  And  the  reason  is 
obvious.  It  were  inconsistent  with  his  deity  to  be  made  a  repre- 
sentative of  any  dependent  being.  It  were  inconsistent  with  the 
pecuharity  of  his  person,  station,  and  agency,  as  the  incarnate 
Word,  to  be  made  the  representative  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

5.  Were  one  of  his  acts  to  be  made  the  symbol  of  another 
and  different  agency,  to  be  exerted  either  by  himself  or  the  Spirit, 
still,  agreeably  to  the  third  law,  it  could  not  be  used  as  a  type, 
until  he  had  exerted  it.  Before  his  coming  in  the  clouds  visibly 
to  every  eye,  can  be  a  type  of  any  other  agency,  he  must  so 
come  in  the  clouds,  and  exert  all  the  acts,  and  fulfil  all  the  condi- 
tions predicted  of  that  appearance. 

X.  All  the  agents  and  phenomena  exhibited  in  the  visions  of 
the  Apocalypse  are  symbolic,  except  the  interpreting  angels  and 
those  bearing  the  trumpets  and  vials,  whose  office  is  merely  to 
assist  the  revelation.  Thus  the  silence  of  half  an  hour,  after 
the  opening  of  the  seventh  seal,  the  angel  flying  through  mid- 
heaven  saying,  with  a  loud  voice,  "  Woe,  woe,  woe,  to  the  in- 
habitants of  the  earth,"  and  the  voices  from  heaven,  are  doubtless 
as  representative  as  any  of  the  other  agents  and  phenomena  pre- 
sented to  the  senses  of  the  prophet. 

XI.  The  symbolic  agents  attending  the  throne  of  the  Almighty, 
and  serving  in  his  presence,  are  to  be  distinguished  from  those 
that  appear  on  the  earth.  The  former,  such  as  the  living  crea- 
tures, the  elders,  and  the  angels  uniting  in  their  worship,  minis- 

5 


34         THE  LAWS  OF  SYMBOLIC  REPRESENTATION. 

lering  at  the  aluir,  and  fulfilling  other  offices  in  the  divine  pres- 
ence, are  to  be  regarded  as  representatives  only  of  agents  there, 
not  on  earth.  The  latter,  such  as  the  hosts  of  Michael  and  Satan 
warring  in  the  atmosphere,  the  angels  having  power  over  the 
four  winds,  the  majestic  shape  ascending  from  the  east  bearing 
the  seal  of  God,  the  gigantic  form  robed  in  a  cloud  and  crowned 
with  iris  splendors  that  descending  set, 

Upon  the  stormy  ocean  his  right  foot, 
On  the  green  land  liis  left, 

and  others  of  the  like  nature  fulfilling  their  offices  on  earth,  are 
in  like  manner  representatives  only  of  agents  here. 

XII.  In  complex  symbols,  the  representative  person  is  to  be 
distinguished  from  the  symbolic  accompaniments,  which  are 
merely  designed  to  show  his  office,  character,  and  relations. 
Thus,  under  the  first  seal,  the  rider  of  the  horse  is  the  symbolic 
agent,  the  bow  but  denotes  his  office,  and  his  station  and  move- 
ment on  the  horse,  that  he  is  in  the  successful  excercise  of  that 
office.  In  like  manner  in  the  cherubim  of  Ezekiel,  it  is  doubt- 
less the  face  of  man  that  denotes  the  order  of  intelligences  to 
which  the  cherub  belongs,  while  the  face  of  the  lion,  the  eagle, 
and  the  ox,  the  wings  and  the  innumerable  eyes,  are  employed 
merely  to  denote  the  vast  sublimation  of  their  sensitive  nature, 
expansion  and  refinement  of  faculties,  and  strength  and  perfec- 
tion of  character  to  which  they  are  there  exalted. 

XIII.  Symbolic  agents  that  are  representative  of  men,  denote 
an  order  and  succession  of  agents,  acting  in  the  same  relations, 
and  exerting  a  similar  agency.  That  such  is  the  office  of  the 
principal  symbols  is  indisputable,  as  of  the  ten-horned  wild  beast, 
which  denotes  the  united  civil  rulers  of  the  western  Roman  em- 
pire after  its  division  into  ten  kingdoms,  through  a  period  of 
many  generations ;  of  the  image,  which  symbolizes  a  similar 
union  of  the  numerous  ecclesiastical  rulers  and  teachers  of  the 
same  empire  through  successive  ages  ;  the  seven-headed  dragon, 
the  monster  locusts  and  horsemen  ;  as  is  manifest  from  the  period 
through  which  their  agency  continues  ;  the  woman  clothed  with 
sunbeams,  her  son,  the  witnesses,  the  horsemen  of  the  first  four 
seals,  the  angels  flying  through  the  midst  of  heaven,  the  angel 
clotlied  in  a  cloud,  and  the  angel  bearing  the  seal  of  God.  The 
offices  they  sustain,  the  agencies  they  exert,  and  such  of  their 
periods  as  are  specified,  require  that  construction.  And  tlience 
this  method  of  representation  is  requisite  throughout,  in  order  to 
a  due  proportion  of  the  agents  and  their  agency  to  each  other. 


THE  LAWS  OF  SYMBOLIC  REPRESENTATION.         35 

As  a  vast  body  and  succession  of  men  is  denoted  by  a  wild 
beast,  whose  term  of  life,  according  to  analogy,  must  be  short ; 
and  as  the  pewod  of  its  agency  is  for  that  reason  represented  by 
a  proportionably  short  duration,  so  in  order  to  concinnity  and 
likelihood,  other  classes  and  successions  of  men  are  required  to 
be  represented  by  single  agents,  and  long  periods  of  agency  by 
periods  that  are  short. 

XIV,  Accordingly  the  periods  ascribed  to  those  representa- 
tive agents,  the  wild  beast,  the  witnesses,  the  star-crowned  wo- 
man, are  denoted  by  terms  proportionably  diminished,  by  the 
substitution  of  days  for  years,  and  months  for  a  number  of  years 
equal  to  their  number  of  days. 

XV.  In  interpreting  symbols  like  those  drawn  from  the  phy- 
sical world,  embracing  many  classes  of  objects,  they  are  to  be 
contemplated  as  a  whole,  and  a  counterpart  sought  sustaining 
towards  them  an  analogy  as  a  whole  ;  not  considered  in  detail, 
as  the  elements  differ  of  which  ihey  consist,  and  as  though  each, 
notwithstanding  its  relations  to  the  whole,  retained  its  own  pecu- 
liar meaning.  Thus  though  mountains,  trees,  grass,  are  used  in 
other  Scriptures  to  metaphorize  classes  of  men,  or  men  in  gene- 
ral, it  does  not  follow  that  they  bear  a  similar  signification  in  a 
symbol  of  which  they  are  a  part ;  or  that  it  is  to  their  having 
such  meanings  as  metaphors,  that  symbols  in  which  thsy  are 
united  owe  in  any  degree  their  significance.  The  assumption 
that  they  still  retain  their  metaphorical  meaning  is  preposterous, 
and  has  been  a  fruitful  source  of  error  in  the  exposition  of  the 
Apocah^pse.  As  there  is  no  counterpart  to  the  physical,  except 
the  social  world,  symbols  drawn  from  the  one,  embracing  a  va- 
riety of  objects,  like  a  landscape,  a  country,  the  earth,  of  course 
denote  an  analogous  union  of  agents  in  the  social  world,  either 
religious,  or  civil,  or  military.  When  the  whole,  therefore,  thus 
of  necessity  denotes  men,  it  is  preposterous  to  regard  that  repre- 
sentation as  the  office  of  only  a  part ;  or  the  signification  of  the 
whole  as  the  consequence  of  the  unsymbolic  meaning  of  subordi- 
nate portions.  It  is  the  union  of  the  whole  in  the  symbol  and  thing 
symbolized,  that  constitutes  the  analogy  ;  not  any  separate  adap- 
tation of  the  particulars  of  the  one,  aside  from  that  union,  to 
represent  the  particulars  of  the  other.  More,  perhaps,  of  the 
errors  of  expositors  are  traceable  to  the  neglect  of  this  obvious 
law  than  any  other.  The  question  is  perpetually  raised  by  them, 
What  do  mountains,  trees,  seas,  hills,  rivers,  denote  in  other 
Scriptures,  and  on  the  assumption  that  their  import  when  united 


3C  THE  LAWS  OF  SYMBOLIC  REPRESENTATION. 

in  a  symbol,  is  to  be  dctenniiied  by  their  meaning  when  used 
separately  as  metaphors  or  similes. 

XVI.  The  import  ascribed  to  a  symbol  is  to  be  limited  to  that 
which  it  naturally  involves,  irrespective  of  any  peculiar  or  meta- 
phorical use  of  its  agents,  actions,  or  terms,  which  other  passages 
may  present.  Thus  to  harvest  the  grain  crops  of  a  season,  is  to 
cut  them  from  the  stalk,  bind  them  in  sheaves,  and  gather  them 
together,  in  order  to  preservation  and  appropriation  to  use.  It 
denotes  nothing  more.  When  used,  therefore,  to  symbolize  an 
agency  on  men,  it  is  to  be  interpreted  as  simply  representing 
them  as  gathered  together  from  their  scene  of  life,  in  order  to 
some  subsequent  destiny.  But  whether  good  or  evil,  if  deter- 
mined, is  to  be  determined  from  something  else  than  the  mere 
symbol.  To  infuse  into  it  a  higher  meaning,  because  a  harvest 
is  thought  to  denote  in  other  passages  the  gathering  of  men  for 
destruction,  is  to  create  a  sense  for  the  symbol,  not  to  interpret 
it ;  to  superinduce  a  foreign  meaning,  not  to  unfold  that  with 
which  it  is  itself  fraught. 

XVII.  The  station  of  the  heavenly  sanctuary  is  to  be  conceived 
as  over  Patmos,  at  a  great  elevation,  whence  the  apocalyptic 
earth,  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  west  and  north  of  Europe,  was 
visible ;  the  throne  as  in  the  holy  of  holies,  and  the  aposlle  as  at 
first  in  the  sanctuary  whence  the  holy  of  holies,  the  inner  sanctu- 
ary, the  veil  being  withdrawn,  might  be  seen  ;  afterwards  at  the 
vestibule  or  court,  from  which  the  earth  with  all  its  great  objects, 
seas,  rivers,  mountains,  forests,  and  cities  might  be  beheld;  and 
often  on  the  earth  itself. 


THE   APOCALYPSE. 


SECTION  I. 
CHAPTER   I.  1-3. 

THE  TITLE. 

The  Revelation  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  God  gave  to  him  to  show- 
to  his  servants  what  must  shortly  come  to  pass,  and  sending  he  sig- 
nified by  his  angel  to  his  servant  John,  who  attested  the  word  of 
God  and  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ,  whatever  he  saw. 

Blessed  is  he  who  reads  and  they  who  hear  the  words  of  the 
prophecy,  and  keep  the  things  written  in  it,  for  the  time  is  near. 

The  title  of  the  prophecy  was  obviously  prefixed  after  the  vis- 
ions were  written,  as  it  was  after  the  symbols  had  been  shown  and 
interpreted  by  the  angel ;  while  the  visions  themselves,  manifestly 
from  chapter  x.  4,  were  written  successively  as  they  were  beheld. 
The  delivery  of  the  Apocalypse  to  Christ,  was  doubtless  the  de- 
livery of  the  sealed  book  its  symbol,  of  which  there  is  a  repre- 
sentation in  the  fifth  chapter.  The  apostle's  attesting  the  word 
of  God,  is  his  record  as  a  prophet  of  the  revelation  as  it  was  made 
to  him  in  the  visions,  and  interpreted  by  the  angel.  That  to 
which  he  gave  his  testimony,  he  says  both  here  and  in  the  last 
chapter,  was  that  which  he  saw.  It  is  apparent  also  from  his 
benediction  of  those  who  read  and  hear  the  words  of  the  prophecy, 
and,  keep  the  things  that  are  written  in  it.  To  regard,  with  Dr. 
Hammond  and  Vitringa,  not  the  revelation,  but  the  gospel  which 
he  had  preached  and  written,  as  the  subject  of  his  testimony,  is 
to  refer  the  benediction  likewise  to  the  readers  of  his  gospel  in- 
stead of  the  Apocalypse,  which  is  in  contradiction  to  his  language, 
and  misrepresents  his  gospel  as  a  prophecy,  instead  of  a  history. 
That  blessing  implies  that  tlie  prophecy  is  easily  intelligible  to 
the  attentive  reader  and  hearer,  and  that  they  who  understand 
and  treasure  up  the  great  things  which  it  teaches,  will  find  them 
sources  of  enjoyment  here,  and  everlasting  happiness  hereafter. 

The  office  of  the  angel  was  simply  to  guide  and  interpret,  not 


38  THE  apostle's  salutation  of  the  churches. 

as  some  seem  to  imagine,  to  display  the  visionary  spectacle  to  the 
aposlle.  That  is  to  exalt  him  to  the  station  of  the  incarnate 
Word,  whose  prerogative  alone  it  is  to  reveal  to  creatures  the 
purposes  of  God.  The  testimony  of  Christ  which  the  apostle 
witnessed,  is  his  annunciation  of  himself  in  the  first  vision  and 
messages  to  the  churches  of  Asia  ;  the  word  of  God,  his  purpose 
as  made  known  by  the  symbols,  the  voices  from  heaven,  and  the 
interpreting  angel. 

As  the  revelation  embraces  a  vast  succession  of  events  extend- 
ing through  many  ages,  that  they  were  soon  to  come  to  pass,  im- 
plies, not  that  they  were  soon  to  reach  their  completion,  but  only 
that  the  series  was  speedily  to  commence.  That  representation 
is  agreeable  to  usage.  It  is  customary  to  speak  of  successions 
of  events  and  periods  of  time  as  nigh,  how  vast  soever  or  intermi- 
nable even  they  may  be,  when  the  commencement  is  at  hand  ; 
as  of  a  war,  an  age,  a  century,  the  millennium,  eternity,  though 
the  term  covers  every  other  part  as  absolutely  as  the  first  of  the 
period  or  series. 


SECTION  II. 
CHAPTER    I.    4-8. 

THE  apostle's  SALUTATION  OF  THE  CHURCHES. 

John  to  the  seven  churches  which  are  in  Asia ;  grace  to  you  and 
peace  from  Him  who  is,  and  who  was,  and  who  is  to  come,  and  from 
the  seven  spirits  which  are  before  his  throne,  and  from  Jesus  Christ, 
the  faithful  Witness,  the  Firstborn  from  the  dead,  and  the  Ruler  of 
the  kings  of  the  earth.  To  him  who  loves  us  and  has  washed  us  from 
our  sins  in  his  blood,  and  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God  even 
his  Father,  to  him  be  glory  and  dominion  forever  and  ever.  Amen. 
Behold,  he  comes  with  the  clouds,  and  every  eye  shall  see  him,  and 
they  who  pierced  him,  and  all  the  tribes  of  the  earth  shall  wail  be- 
cause of  him.  Yea,  amen.  I  am  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega,  saith 
the  Lord  God,  who  is  and  who  was  and  who  is  to  come,  the  Al- 
mighty. 

The  seven  spirits  are  the  Holy  Spirit,  denominated  seven  be- 
cause symbolized  by  seven  lamps.  Paul's  salutations  of  the 
churches  are  eminently  beautiful,  and  rise  in  some  instances  to 
grandeur.     But  this  transcends  them  in  vastness  and  majesty  of 


THE  FIRST  VISION. CHRIST  S  ANNUNCIATION.  39 

thought,  presenting  in  a  few  words  the  loftiest  conceptions  of 
which  we  are  capable  of  the  Deity  ;  and  the  most  impressive  of 
the  office  and  work  of  the  Redeemer.  His  coming  with  the 
clouds,  is  that  doubtless  which  is  symbolized  by  his  descent  on 
the  while  horse,  in  the  nineteenth  chapter  ;  and  they  who  pierce 
him  are  they  who,  like  the  Jews,  are  to  reject  him  as  Messiah, 
choose  some  other  method  than  his  of  salvation,  and  endeavor  to 
debar  him  from  his  throne.  That  all  the  tribes  of  the  earth  are 
to  wail  because  of  him,  implies  that  they  are  to  survive  his  ad- 
vent, and  expect  from  him  an  avenging  judgment.  The  assevera- 
tion. Yea,  amen,  and  proclamation  of  his  attributes,  denotes  the 
certainty  of  his  coming,  and  that  it  is  to  carry  to  all  his  creatures 
a  resistless  demonstration  that  he  is  the  Self-existent,  the  Eter- 
nal, and  Almighty. 


SECTION  III. 

CHAPTER    I.    9-20. 

THE  FIRST  VISION. CHRIST's  ANNUNCIATION. 

I  John  your  brother  and  fellow-partaker  in  the  affliction,  and  king- 
dom, and  patience  of  Jesus  Christ,  was  in  the  isle  called  Patmos,on 
account  of  the  word  of  God  and  of  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ. 
I  was  in  the  Spirit  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  I  heard  behind  me  a  loud 
voice  as  of  a  trumpet,  saying,  What  thou  seest  write  in  a  book,  and 
send  to  the  seven  churches  in  Ephesus,  and  in  Smyrna,  and  in  Per- 
gamos,  and  in  Thyatira,  and  in  Sardis,  and  in  Philadelphia,  and  in 
Laodicea.  And  I  turned  to  see  the  voice  which  spake  with  me,  and 
having  turned,  I  saw  seven  golden  candlesticks,  and  in  the  midst  of 
the  seven  candlesticks,  one  like  a  son  of  man,  clothed  with  a  robe 
to  the  feet,  and  girded  at  the  breasts  with  a  golden  girdle.  And  his 
head  and  hairs  were  white  as  white  wool,  as  snow ;  and  his  eyes  as 
a  flame  of  fire,  and  his  feet  Hke  glowing  brass,  as  purified  in  a  furnace, 
and  his  voice  as  a  voice  of  many  waters ;  and  holding  in  his  right 
hand  seven  stars  ;  and  from  his  mouth  a  sharp  two-edged  sword  pro- 
ceeded, and  his  countenance  [was]  as  the  sun  shining  in  its  strength. 

And  when  I  saw  him,  I  fell  at  his  feet  as  dead.  And  he  put  his 
right  hand  on  me,  saying,  Fear  not :  I  am  the  First  and  the  Last  and 
the  Living.  I  was  dead,  and  behold  I  am  alive  forever  and  ever, 
and  have  the  keys  of  death  and  of  hades.  Write  therefore  what 
thou  hast  seen,  and  the  things  which  are,  and  the  things  which  are 


40  THE  FIRST  VISION. CHRIST's  ANNUNCIATION. 

to  be  after  these  ;  the  mystery  of  the  seven  stars  which  thou  sawest 
in  my  right  hand,  and  the  seven  golden  candlesticks.  The  seven 
stars  are  messengers  of  the  seven  churches,  and  the  seven  candle- 
sticks are  the  seven  churches. 

Being  in  the  Spirit  was  being  in  the  prophetic  ecstasy  in  vi^hich 
visions  were  beheld  and  revelations  received  :  being  like  a  son 
of  man,  was  being  of  a  human  form  simply.  That  he  was  the 
incarnate  Word  whom  the  apostle  beheld,  was  shown  not  by  that 
form,  but  by  his  annunciation  of  himself,  and  the  symbols  which 
he  bore. 

The  design  of  this  vision  was  to  apprize  the  prophet,  from 
whom  the  commands  and  messages  about  to  be  uttered  proceeded, 
and  raise  him  to  becoming  thoughts  of  him,  and  the  grounds  on 
which  he  founds  his  government.  And  the  means  chosen  for  the 
purpose,  the  personal  appearance  and  address  of  Christ,  are 
marked  by  the  highest  adaptation.  Our  sensitive  and  rational 
nature  is  such,  that  the  presence  of  such  a  majestic  being  daz- 
zling us  with  the  effulgence  of  his  countenance,  accompanied  by 
insignia  of  dominion,  and  addressing  us  with  aiithority,  would  in- 
stantly raise  in  us  an  irresistible  conviction  of  his  deity,  and  our 
responsibility  to  him.  Equally  suited  to  that  end  are  the  thoughts 
which  the  Redeemer  addressed  to  the  apostle,  who  had  fallen  as 
dead  at  the  spectacle.  Of  all  the  conceptions  of  which  we  are 
capable,  they  take  a  more  powerful  hold  than  any  others  of  our 
moral  nature,  filling  the  intellect  with  his  greatness,  indepen- 
dence, and  dominion,  and  the  heart  with  a  sense  of  his  rights. 

In  this  use  of  means  more  adapted  than  any  others  to  impress 
the  apostle  with  his  divinity  and  office  as  Redeemer,  he  display- 
•  ed  a  knowledge  of  our  nature  and  a  beauty  of  wisdom  and  con- 
descension, that  are  seen  only  in  God.  That  a  foundation  exists 
in  us  for  a  recognition  of  the  Deity,  and  an  all-powerful  sense  of 
his  rights  over  us,  is  indisputable.  If  we  endeavor  to  conceive 
the  impressions  which  would  be  made  on  us  by  such  a  vision,  the 
more  adequate  our  apprehensions  become  of  the  convictions  and 
emotions  to  which  it  would  give  birth,  the  clearer  will  be  our 
sight,  and  the  profounder  our  feeling,  that  it  w^ould  bear  us  irre- 
sistibly to  the  conclusion  that  we  were  in  the  presence  of  our 
Maker.  It  is  a  law  of  our  nature  which  no  logic  can  set  aside, 
and  to  which  no  unbelief,  ignorance,  or  stupidity  can  offer  an  ob- 
struction. Not  only  the  apostle  in  this  instance,  and  at  tiie  trans- 
figuration with  Peter  and  James,  but  Paul,  Daniel,  Ezekicl,  Isaiah, 
Moses,  Job,  sunk  overwhelmed  at  the  presence  of  the  Almighty. 


THE    FIRST    VISION. CHRIST's    ANNUNCIATION.  41 

And  such  a  sensibility  to  the  proofs  of  his  presence  and 
rights,  is  obviously  necessary  to  fit  us  to  be  subjects  of  his  mor- 
al government.  Were  there  not  a  foundation  within  us  for  such 
an  instinctive  and  all-powerful  feeling  of  his  title  to  our  homage, 
because  of  his  nature,  and  relations  as  our  Maker,  his  claims 
could  lay  no  hold  of  our  consciences.  We  should  be  incapable 
indeed  of  a  sense  of  responsibihty  to  him.  Were  not  that  feeling 
independent  of  our  reasonings,  spontaneous,  and  absolutely  irre- 
pressible, however  much  we  might  strive  to  stifle  or  escape  it, 
it  would  at  the  best  be  but  feeble  and  inefficient  even  in  those 
who  sought  to  cherish  it,  and  would  fade  into  extinction  in  those 
who  endeavored  to  counteract  or  mislead  it  by  false  reasonings. 
But  God  has  not  built  his  government  on  so  precarious  a  founda- 
tion as  our  wishes  or  opinions.  He  has  so  formed  us,  that  he 
has  a  grasp  on  our  moral  nature  which  no  struggles  of  ours  can 
ever  escape,  no  aversion  diminish,  nor  sophistry  relax.  He  has 
but  to  reveal  himself  to  us  and  proclaim  his  deity,  and  blindness, 
unbelief,  and  insensibility  vanish,  and  our  whole  nature  responds 
to  the  rightfulness  of  his  claims  to  our  awe  and  love.  The  grounds 
of  his  government  are  thus  laid  in  our  constitution  beyond  the 
possibility  of  eradication  by  us,  and  are  to  endure  throughout  our 
immortal  existence. 

The  truth  thus  taught  in  the  first  vision,  presents  a  sublime 
exemplification  of  the  blessings,  which  the  things  written  in  the 
book  are  suited  to  yield  to  those  who  understand  and  observe 
them.  Had  it  been  studied  attentively,  apprehended  and  obeyed, 
it  would  have  prevented  the  vast  cloud  of  false  and  pernicious 
speculations  with  which  philosophers  and  theologians  have  filled 
the  world,  respecting  the  foundation  of  morals.  In  what  a  resist- 
less light  it  exhibits  the  folly  and  impiety  with  which  most  of  them 
are  marked  ; — the  doctrine  of  expedience,  of  the  greatest  good, 
of  human  authority,  of  custom,  and,  which  transcends  all  others 
in  the  audacity  with  which  it  sets  aside  the  claims  of  the  Al- 
mighty, the  doctrine  that  he  has  no  right  as  God  and  creator,  but 
only  as  benefactor  ;  and  that  that  right  sinks  as  his  bounties  di- 
minish, and  expires  when  he  punishes.  A  just  understanding  of 
the  grounds  on  which  he  builds  his  government,  would  liave  with- 
held them  too,  from  many  of  the  erroneous  construclions  which 
they  have  put  on  the  visions.  It  is  from  iiis  prerogatives  as  the 
Self-existent  and  the  creator,  that  the  falsehood  and  impiety  of 
the  claims  of  the  wild  beast  and  false  prophet  to  a  supreme  hom- 
age are  seen. 

While  the  Redeemer's  person  and  annunciation  of  himself  re- 

G 


42  THE    FIRST    VISION. CHRISt's    ANNUNCIATION. 

vealed  his  deify,  the  accompanying  symbols  denoted  the  agency 
he  was  to  exert ;  his  relation  to  the  stars  and  candlesticks,  his 
rule  over  the  church  ;  the  sword  proceeding  from  his  mouth,  the 
avenging  sentence  he  was  to  pronounce  on  his  enemies. 

In  denominating  the  seven  stars  and  seven  candlesticks  a  mys- 
tery, and  explaining  their  meaning,  it  is  shown  that  the  objects 
presented  in  the  visions  are  representative,  and  that  the  principle 
of  representation  is  analogy.  A  star  is  a  teacher  who  spreads 
the  light  of  God's  word  through  the  circle  around  him  ;  a  candle- 
stick a  church  supporting  such  a  teacher  in  the  station  in  which 
he  fulfils  that  office. 

The  seven  churches  are  treated  by  Vitringa  and  many  others 
as  symbolic,  but  in  violation  of  analogy,  as  it  implies  both  that 
the  representative  agents  are  of  the  same  species  as  the  beings 
whom  they  represent,  and  their  actions  the  same  as  those  which 
they  foreshadow.  The  admission  of  such  a  principle  of  represen- 
tation, were  to  involve  the  whole  Apocalypse  in  uncertainty.  If 
each  of  the  seven  churches  indicate  a  similarity  of  doctrine  and 
character  in  the  church  at  large  at  a  later  period,  then  must  the 
wild  beast  with  seven  heads  and  ten  horns  be  held  as  symbol- 
izing a  vast  body  of  similar  wild  beasts  ;  which  as  it  Avould  imply 
the  creation  of  a  new  species,  and  therefore  a  total  departure  from 
the  laws  of  providence,  and  is  unworthy  to  be  made  the  subject 
of  prophecy,  is  wholly  incredible. 

It  is  equally  at  variance  with  the  law,  that  no  act  of  a  symbol 
can  represent  an  act  of  the  agent  symbolized,  unless  it  be  either 
really  exerted  by  the  representative,  or  exhibited  to  the  prophet 
in  vision.  But  of  the  things  predicated  of  those  churches,  a  por- 
tion were  future.  Some  of  their  members  were  to  be  cast  into 
prison,  and  to  suffer  persecution  ten  days  ;  some  were  to  be  kept 
from  the  hour  of  temptation  which  was  to  come  on  the  whole 
world  ;  and  others  were  to  be  rebuked  in  love  and  chastened.  In 
order,  therefore,  liiat  their  future  existence  and  agency  in  those 
conditions,  might  be  made  a  symbol  of  the  existence  and  like 
agency  of  the  church  in  similar  conditions  at  future  periods,  the 
agents,  scenery,  and  actions  should  have  been  exhibited  to  the 
apostle  in  vision.  Such  is  invariably  the  law  of  symbolization, 
and  obviously  for  the  most  imperative  reasons.  To  make  a  mere 
fictitious  act,  wiiich  has  not  been  invested  with  even  a  visionary 
existence,  a  representative,  were  to  make  a  nonentity  a  sign  ; 
and  thence,  if  the  assumption  on  which  the  construction  in  ques- 
tion proceeds  were  legitimate,  that  ihe  symbol  and  thing  symbol- 
ized are  of  the  same  species,  were  to  make  the  action  foreshown 


THE    FIRST    VISION. CHRIST's    ANNUNCIATION.  43 

also  a  nonentity  ;  which  were  not  only  to  degrade  the  whole  to 
utter  unintelligibleness,  but  to  make  the  pretence  that  it  is  a  rep- 
resentation of  the  future,  a  mockery. 

These  views  are  confirmed  by  their  want  of  success,  who  have 
endeavored  to  show  a  correspondence  between  the  characteristics 
of  the  first  six  of  the  churches,  and  the  church  at  large  at  six 
successive  periods.  The  applications  of  Mr.  Brightman,  Dr. 
More,  Vitringa,  and  others,  are  wholly  arbitrary,  exhibit  no  bet- 
ter resemblances  than  might  be  found  at  many  other  periods,  and 
are  embarrassed  at  every  step  by  flagrant  contradiction,  or  a  total 
want  of  likeness. 

Equally  erroneous  is  the  assumption  which  others  have  ad- 
vanced, that  those  churches  were  symbols  of  the  church  at  large 
of  that  period.  That  is  likewise  against  analogy,  which  forbids 
the  use  of  a  symbol  of  the  same  species,  as  the  thing  symbol- 
ized, except  when  no  other  adequate  representative  can  be  found. 
But  that  reason  does  not  exist  for  making  the  church  a  symbol 
of  itself,  as  it  is  actually  represented  in  the  Apocalypse  by  a  can- 
dlestick. 

Those  churches  then  are  not  symbolic.  Neither  are  the  mes- 
sages addressed  to  them  wholly  prophetic,  though  they  foreshow 
trials  and  persecutions  on  the  one  hand,  and  supports  and  rewards 
on  the  other.  They  are  however  not  the  less  important,  as  they 
make  known  the  great  principles  on  which  the  Redeemer  was  to 
conduct  his  administration  through  a  long  succession  of  ages,  and 
form  thence  a  most  instructive  introduction  to  the  visions,  in  which 
the  conduct  of  men  under  that  administration  is  foreshown.  Thus 
he  not  only  proclaims  to  them  his  deity,  his  prerogatives  as  the 
Ruler  of  the  universe,  his  claims  to  their  homage,  and  his  per- 
fect knowledge  of  their  character  and  condition,  but  apprizes  them 
that  he  is  to  subject  them  to  trial,  and  allow  some  to  be  persecu- 
ted and  put  to  death  ;  that  he  shall  desert  and  disown  the  luke- 
warm, and  overwhelm  with  terrible  judgments  the  apostate,  but 
support  the  faithful  with  his  presence,  and  finally  crown  them 
with  eternal  rewards  ; — promises  and  threatenings  that  have  been 
conspicuously  verified  in  his  providence  toward  both  churches 
and  individuals,  through  the  long  series  of  ages  that  has  followed. 


44  EPISTLES    TO    EPHESUS,    SMYRNA,    ETC. 

•  SECTION  IV. 

CHAPTER   II.     1-28. 

EPISTLES  TO  EPHESUS,  SMYRNA,  PERGAMOS,  AND  THYATIRA. 

To  the  messenger  of  the  church  in  Ephesus  write  ;  These  saith  he 
who  holds  the  seven  stars  in  his  right  hand,  who  walks  in  the  midst 
of  the  seven  golden  candlesticks :  I  know  thy  works,  and  thy  labor, 
and  thy  patience,  and  that  thou  canst  not  bear  the  wicked,  and  thou 
hast  tried  them  who  call  themselves  apostles,  and  are  not,  and  hast 
found  them  false  ;  and  thou  hast  patience,  and  hast  borne  for  my 
name,  and  hast  not  fainted.  But  I  have  [it]  against  thee  that  thou  hast 
left  thy  first  love.  Remember  therefore  whence  thou  hast  fallen,  and 
reform  and  do  thy  first  works.  But  if  not,  I  come  to  thee  quickly  ; 
and  I  will  remove  thy  candlestick  from  its  place,  unless  thou  reform. 
But  thou  hast  this,  that  thou  hatest  the  works  of  the  Nicolaitans, 
which  I  also  hate.  He  that  has  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit 
says  to  the  churches.  To  him  who  overcomes,  I  will  give  to  eat 
of  the  tree  of  life  which  is  in  the  paradise  of  God. 

And  to  the  messenger  of  the  church  in  Smyrna  write  :  These 
saith  the  First  and  the  Last,  who  was  dead  and  has  revived,  I  know 
thy  works,  and  affliction,  and  poverty,  (but  thou  art  rich,)  and  false 
accusation  by  those  who  say  they  are  Jews,  and  are  not,  but  a  syn- 
agogue of  Satan.  Fear  not  what  thou  art  about  to  suffer.  Behold, 
the  devil  is  about  to  cast  some  of  you  into  prison,  that  ye  may  be 
tried  ;  and  ye  shall  have  affliction  ten  days.  Be  faithful  unto  death, 
and  I  will  give  thee  the  crown  of  life.  He  that  has  an  ear,  let  him 
hear  what  the  Spirit  says  to  the  churches.  He  who  overcomes  shall 
not  be  injured  by  the  second  death. 

And  to  the  messenger  of  the  church  in  Pergamos  write  :  These 
saith  he  who  has  the  two-edged  sharp  sword,  I  know  thy  works,  and 
where  thou  dwellest,  where  the  throne  of  Satan  [is.]  And  thou 
boldest  my  name,  and  wouldst  not  deny  my  faith  even  in  the  days  in 
which  Antipas  [was]  my  faithful  witness,  who  was  put  to  death 
among  you,  where  Satan  dwells.  But  I  have  a  few  things  against 
thee ;  that  thou  hast  there  those  who  hold  the  doctrine  of  Balaam, 
who  taught  Balak  to  cast  a  stumbling-block  before  the  children  of 
Israel,  to  eat  offerings  to  idols,  and  commit  fornication.  So  also  thou 
hast  those  who  hold  the  doctrine  of  the  Nicolaitans  in  like  manner. 
Reform  therefore.  But  if  not,  I  come  to  thee  quickly,  and  I  will  fight 
with  them  with  the  sword  of  my  mouth.  He  who  has  an  ear,  let 
him  hear  what  the  Spirit  says  to  the  churches.  To  him  who  over- 
comes, I  will  give  of  the  manna  which  is  hidden.     And  1  will  give 


EPISTLES  TO  EPHESUS,  SMYRNA,  ETC.  45 

him  a  white  stone,  and  on  the  stone  a  new  name  written,  which  no 
one  knows  but  he  who  receives  it. 

And  to  the  messenger  of  the  church  in  Thyatira  write  :  These 
saith  the  Son  of  God,  who  has  his  eyes  as  a  flame  of  fire,  and  his 
feet  like  glowing  brass  ;  I  know  thy  works,  and  love,  and  faith,  and 
ministry,  and  thy  patience,  and  thy  last  works  to  be  more  than  the 
first.  But  I  have  [it]  against  thee  that  thou  sufferest  thy  wife  Jeze- 
bel, who  calls  herself  a  prophetess,  and  teaches  and  seduces  my 
servants  to  commit  fornication,  and  eat  offerings  to  idols.  And  I 
gave  her  time  that  she  might  reform,  and  she  chooses  not  to  reform 
from  her  fornication.  Behold,  I  cast  her  into  a  bed,  and  those  who 
commit  adultery  with  her  into  great  affliction,  unless  they  shall  re- 
form from  her  works.  And  I  will  slay  her  children  with  death. 
And  all  the  churches  shall  know  that  I  am  he  who  searches  the  reins 
and  hearts,  and  I  will  give  to  each  one  of  you  according  to  your 
works.  But  to  you  the  rest  who  are  in  Thyatira  I  say,  as  many  as 
do  not  hold  that  doctrine,  who  have  not  known  the  depths  of  Satan, 
as  they  speak,  I  lay  on  you  no  other  burden  ;  but  what  ye  have, 
hold  until  I  come.  And  he  who  overcomes,  and  who  keeps  my 
works  to  the  end,  I  will  give  him  power  over  the  nations,  and  he 
shall  rule  them  with  an  iron  sceptre,  as  vessels  of  clay  are  broken, 
as  I  have  received  of  my  Father.  And  I  w^ill  give  him  the  morning 
star.  He  that  has  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  says  to  the 
churches. 

The  doctrine  of  Balaam  was  the  doctrine  that  the  ministers  of 
God  might,  for  gain,  counsel  and  promote  the  seduction  of  his 
people  to  mingle  in  the  feasts  and  impurities  of  idolaters  :  the 
doctrine  of  the  Nicolaitans  probably,  that  the  people  of  God 
might  lawfully  partake  of  their  offerings  to  idols,  and  indulge  in 
their  excesses. 

To  slay  with  death,  is  to  destroyby  a  natural  disease,  in  con- 
tradistinction from  an  extraordinary  and  violent  instrument,  as 
by  the  pestilence  instead  of  the  sword. 

As  all  the  gifts  promised  to  the  victorious  are  gifts  after  their 
victory,  the  hidden  manna  denotes  the  sustenance  in  the  life  of 
the  future  world,  and  subsequently  to  their  resurrection  doubt- 
less, like  the  other  rewards,  all  of  which  are  of  that  period.  Thus 
the  tree  of  life,  which  is  in  the  paradise  of  God,  is  the  tree  of 
life  in  the  new  Jerusalem,  which  descends  out  of  heaven  from 
God  at  the  establishment  of  Christ's  kingdom  on  the  earth,  after 
the  first  resurrection.  To  be  freed  from  the  power  of  the  second 
death,  is  to  liave  part  in  the  first  resurrection.  To  receive  a  while 
stone,  on  which  a  new  name  is  written,  is  to  receive  a  badge  of 
the  new  and  peculiar  relation  to  Christ,  to  which  the  redeemed 


46  EPISTLES  TO  SARDIS,   PHILADELPHIA,   ETC, 

are  to  be  exalted  at  their  resurrection  and  acceptance.  To  have 
power  over  the  nations,  and  rule  them  with  an  iron  sceptre,  is  to 
be  made  a  king  over  them,  and  to  reign  with  Christ,  which  is  not 
to  be  granted  till  the  commencement  of  his  visible  reign  on  earth, 
after  the  first  resurrection.  As  Christ  is  the  bright  and  morning 
star  which  is  then  to  rise  on  the  new  Jerusalem,  and  supersede 
the  need  in  it  of  sun  or  moon  ;  to  have  that  star  is  to  belong  to 
the  new  Jenisalem  at  its  descent  from  heaven.  To  be  clothed 
in  a  white  robe,  is  to  be  clothed  as  the  bride  is  adorned,  when 
prepared  by  a  resurrection  and  acceptance  for  a  descent  as  the 
new  Jerusalem.  To  have  the  name  of  God  written  on  the  fore- 
head, and  the  name  of  the  city  of  God  the  new  Jerusalem,  is  to 
be  one  of  the  raised  and  glorified  saints.  And  to  sit  with  Christ 
on  his  throne,  is  to  reign  with  him  in  his  kingdom,  during  the  pe- 
riod denoted  by  the  thousand  years,  after  the  first  resurrection. 
The  reason  that  the  blessings  thus  promised  to  the  faithful  are 
all  blessings  of  the  life  that  is  to  follow  the  resurrection,  is, 
doubtless,  that  otherwise  they  were  not  blessings  of  a  full  re- 
demption from  the  curse  of  sin,  and  an  elevation  to  the  stations 
and  honors  which  Christ  is  to  confer  on  his  people,  on  their  pub- 
lic adoption  as  joint  heirs  with  him  and  son^  of  God.  Their  full 
release  from  the  penalty  of  sin  is  not  to  be  accomplished  till  they 
are  restored  from  the  dominion  of  death,  its  great  public  penalty, 
and  raised  to  an  immortal  and  glorious  life.  To  have  promised 
any  thing  less  than  these  gifts,  had  been  only  to  promise  some- 
thing intermediate  between  the  blessings  of  this  life  and  a  full 
salvation. 


SECTION  V. 

CHAPTER    III.  1-22. 
EPISTLES  TO  SARDIS,  PHILADELPHIA,  AND  LAODICEA. 

And  to  the  messenger  of  the  church  in  Sardis  write  :  These  saith 
he  who  has  the  seven  spirits  of  God,  and  the  seven  stars,  I  know 
thy  works,  that  thou  hast  a  name  that  thou  livest,  and  art  dead.  Be 
watchful,  and  strengthen  the  things  remaining  that  are  about  to  die  ; 
for  I  have  not  found  thy  works  fully  performed  before  my  God. 
Remember,  therefore,  how  thou  hast  received,  and  heard,  and  hold, 
and  reform.  If  therefore  thou  shouldst  not  watch,  I  will  come  to 
thee  as  a  thief,  and  thou  canst  not  know  in  what  hour  1  will  come 


EPISTLES  TO  SARDIS,  PHILADELPHIA,  ETC.  47 

to  thee.  But  thou  hast  a  few  names  in  Sardis  which  have  not  de- 
filed their  garments  ;  and  they  shall  walk  with  me  in  white,  for  they 
are  worthy.  He  who  overcomes  shall  be  clothed  in  white  garments, 
and  I  will  not  blot  his  name  from  the  book  of  life  ;  and  I  will  ac- 
knowledge his  name  before  my  Father,  and  before  his  angels.  He 
that  has  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  says  to  the  churches. 

And  to  the  messenger  of  the  church  in  Philadelphia  write  :  These 
saith  he  who  is  holy,  who  is  true,  who  has  the  key  of  David,  who 
opens  and  no  one  shuts,  and  shuts  and  no  one  opens  ;  I  know  thy 
works.  Behold,  I  have  given  before  thee  a  door  opened,  which  no 
one  can  shut ;  for  thou  hast  a  little  strength,  and  hast  kept  my  word, 
and  hast  not  denied  my  name.  Behold,  I  give  of  the  synagogue  of 
Satan,  who  say  they  are  Jews,  and  are  not,  but  lie  ;  behold,  I  will 
constrain  them  that  they  shall  come,  and  shall  fall  before  thy  feet, 
and  know  that  I  have  loved  thee.  Because  thou  hast  kept  the  word 
of  my  patience,  I  also  will  keep  thee  from  the  hour  of  trial,  which 
IS  about  to  come  on  the  whole  world,  to  try  those  who  dwell  on  the 
earth.  I  come  quickly.  Hold  what  thou  hast,  that  no  one  may  take 
thy  crown.  Him  who  overcomes  I  will  make  a  pillar  in  the  temple 
of  my  God,  and  he  can  nevermore  go  out.  And  I  will  write  on  him 
the  name  of  my  God,  and  the  name  of  the  city  of  my  God,  the  new 
Jerusalem,  which  descends  out  of  heaven  from  my  God,  and  my  new 
name.  He  that  has  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  says  to  the 
churches. 

And  to  the  messenger  of  the  church  in  Laodicea  write  :  These 
saith  the  Amen,  the  faithful  and  true  Witness,  the  Head  of  the  crea- 
tion of  God  ;  1  know  thy  works,  that  thou  art  neither  cold  nor  hot. 
I  would  thou  wert  cold  or  hot.  So  because  thou  art  lukewarm,  and 
neither  cold  nor  hot,  I  am  about  to  cast  thee  from  my  mouth.  Be- 
cause thou  sayest,  I  abound,  and  am  enriched,  and  have  want  of 
nothing ;  and  thou  knowest  not  that  thou  art  wretched,  and  pitiable, 
and  poor,  and  blind,  and  naked;  I  counsel  thee  to  buy  of  me  gold, 
purified  by  fire,  that  thou  mayest  be  rich,  and  white  garments  that 
thou  mayest  be  clothed,  and  that  the  shame  of  thy  nakedness  may 
not  appear,  and  eye-salve  to  anoint  thine  eyes  that  thou  mayest  see. 
As  many  as  I  love  I  rebuke  and  chasten.  Be  zealous  therefore  and 
reform.  Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock.  If  any  one  hear 
my  voice  and  open  the  door,  I  will  enter  to  him  and  sup  with  him, 
and  he  with  me.  To  him  who  overcomes  I  will  give  to  sit  with  me 
on  my  throne,  as  I  also  overcame,  and  sat  with  my  Father  on  his 
throne.  He  that  has  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  says  to 
the  churches. 

The  epistles,  though  resembling  each  oilier  in  many  respects, 
differ  in  the  attribiUes  and  prerogatives  which  the  Redeemer  pre 
sents  as  the  ffromid  of  his  title  to  the  homage  of  the  church.     It. 


48  EPISTLES  TO  SARDIS,  PHILADELPHIA,  ETC. 

is  he  who  holds  the  seven  stars  in  his  right  hand,  and  walks  in 
the  midst  of  the  seven  golden  candlesticks,  who  addresses  the 
church  at  Ephesus  ;  the  First  and  the  Last,  who  was  dead  and 
has  revived,  who  speaks  to  the  messenger  of  Smyrna;  and  the 
Son  of  God,  who  has  his  eyes  as  a  flame  of  fire,  and  his  feet  like 
glowing  brass,  who  utters  the  terrible  denunciations  to  the  apos- 
tates, and  the  sublime  promises  to  the  faithful  of  Thyatira.  It  is 
he,  who  has  the  seven  spirits  of  God  and  the  seven  stars,  that 
exhorts  the  church  at  Sardis  to  reformation,  vigilance,  and  stead- 
fastness ;  he  who  is  holy,  who  is  true,  who  has  the  key  of  Da- 
vid, who  opens  and  no  one  shuts,  and  shuts  and  no  one  opens, 
who  promises  deliverance  and  a  victory  to  the  saints  of  Philadel- 
phia ;  and  the  Amen,  the  faithful  and  true  Witness,  the  Head  of 
the  creation  of  God,  who  forewarns  the  lukewarm  of  Laodicea 
of  their  rejection.  These  annunciations  of  himself  are  inimita- 
bly grand,  and  suited,  immeasurably  above  any  others  that  can 
be  conceived,  to  impress  those  to  whom  they  were  addressed, 
with  a  sense  of  his  infinite  knowledge  and  power,  his  universal 
dominion,  the  awfulness  of  his  justice,  and  the  riches  of  his 
grace  ;  and  they  close  with  an  expression  of  condescension  and 
love  which  is  scarcely  equalled  in  any  other  part  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. He  exhibits  himself  as  standing  at  the  door,  and  solicit- 
ing admission  to  the  presence  of  his  people,  and  promises  to  those 
who  allow  him  to  enjoy  their  society  here,  a  participation  in  the 
regal  honors  to  which  he  is  exalted  in  heaven.  What  a  beauty 
of  condescension  !     What  a  grandeur  of  benignity  ! 

The  term  ayyikac.,  translated  in  the  common  version  angel,  liter- 
ally denotes  a  messenger,  and  is  undoubtedly  employed  in  that 
sense.  It  is  certain  that  it  is  used  literally,  inasmuch  as  it  is  used, 
chap.  i.  20,  in  the  explanation  of  the  symbolic  stars  ;  which  are 
employed  to  represent  the  angels  of  the  churches.  To  use  a 
metaphor  to  explain  a  symbol  were  incongruous.  "AyyzKos,  mes- 
senger, is  undoubtedly  therefore  used  as  literally  in  that  inter- 
pretation, as  is  ExxXvjj/a,  church.  But  it  has  no  literal  meaning 
as  a  title  of  men,  except  that  of  messenger ;  and  its  secondary 
use  as  the  name  of  an  order  of  spiritual  agents,  is  founded  on 
their  employment  as  messengers  ;  it  being  applied  to  the  whole 
order,  because  those  of  them  who  have  visited  our  world,  have 
come  as  the  ministers  of  God.  There  is  no  conceivable  ground 
for  the  use  of  the  term  in  these  instances  as  a  metaphor.  What- 
ever theory  is  entertained  of  the  ministers  of  the  seven  churches, 
there  is  no  relation  in  which  an  angelic  being  can  be  imagined 
with  any  propriety  to  be  used  to  metaphorize  them.     An  angel 


EPISTLES    TO    SARDIS,    PHILADELPHIA,  ETC.  49 

most  certainly  is  not  an  appropriate  representative  of  authority. 
Angels  are  ministers  in  their  relations  to  men,  as  well  as  to  God, 
not  rulers ;  and  their  office  as  ministers  who  bear  messages,  is 
that  which  the  name  literally  denotes. 

That  it  is  used  in  its  original  sense  of  messenger,  is  seen  finally 
from  the  fact,  that  the  letters  were  to  be  sent  by  the  apostle  to 
the  churches,  and  sent  therefore  by  messengers,  and  messengers 
doubtless  commissioned  by  the  churches  themselves,  as  it  is  not 
probable  that  appropriate  persons  could  have  been  found  by  the 
apostle  in  the  desert  isle  of  Patmos.  This  supposition  more- 
over is  in  accordance  with  the  customs  of  the  primitive  church. 
Paul  speaks  of  it  with  surprise  and  disapprobation,  that  on  his 
first  arraignment  at  Rome,  all  his  friends  forsook  him,  2  Tim. 
iv.  16;  which  indicates  that  it  was  deemed  becoming,  and  was 
customary,  that  the  associates  of  those  who  were  suffering  per- 
secution, should  attend  and  sustain  them  in  their  trials.  He 
commended  Onesiphorus,  that  he  sought  him  out  on  his  visit  at 
that  city,  refreshed  him  often,  and  was  not  ashamed  of  his  chain, 
2  Tim.  i.  16,  17.  He  was  allowed  during  his  long  residence 
there  as  a  prisoner,  to  live  in  his  own  hired  house,  and  all  who 
chose  were  permitted  to  visit  him. 

The  representation  in  the  letter  to  the  Romans,  ascribed  to 
Ignatius,  and  in  the  story  of  his  martyrdom,  that  some  of  the 
church  of  Antioch  accompanied  him  in  his  journey  to  Rome,  and 
that  in  his  progress  through  Asia  Minor,  pastors  and  members 
of  the  churches  visited  him,  administered  to  his  wants,  and  testi- 
fied their  interest  in  his  approaching  martyrdom,  though  those 
writings  are  undoubtedly  supposititious,  may  justly  be  regarded 
as  founded  on  the  custom  of  the  churches  to  delegate  some  of 
their  number  to  attend  the  martyrs  on  their  removal  to  distant 
places,  and  at  their  death.^ 

It  was  indisputably  customary  during  the  later  pagan  perse- 
cutions, for  the  members  of  the  church  to  visit  the  confessors  in 
prison,  supply  their  wants,  and  comfort  and  encourage  them. 
Dionysius  of  Corinth,  in  a  letter  to  the  church  at  Rome,  written 
between  the  years  168  and  176,  when  Soter  was  its  bishop,  re- 
presents it  as  having  been  the  custom  of  the  Christians  of  that 
city  from  the  first,  to  assist  their  fellow-believers  who  were  in 
want  or  suffering  persecution  ;  sending  to  the  numerous  churches 
in  other  cities,  such  things  as  were  needful  both  for  the  supply 
of  the  poor,  and  the  relief  of  those  of  the  brethren  who  were  seii- 

'  Ignatii  Epist.  ad  Rom.  c.  9,  10.     Martyrii  c.  3.     Eusebii  Eccl.  H.  lib.  iii.  c.  36. 

7 


60  EPISTLES    TO    SARDIS,    PHILADELPHIA,  ETC. 

tenced  to  the  mines,'  Tertullian  in  like  manner  relates  that  the 
Christians  of  Africa,  were  accustomed  to  appropriate  a  portion 
of  their  earnings  to  the  relief,  not  only  of  orphans,  the  aged,  and 
the  unfortunate  among  them,  but  of  those  who  were  imprisoned 
or  condemned  to  the  mines  for  their  confession  of  the  faith. ^ 
Cyprian  in  his  first  letter  written  to  the  presbyters  and  deacons 
of  Carthage  during  his  concealment,  while  exhorting  them  to 
take  all  needful  care  to  supply  the  indigent,  and  relieve  those 
who  were  imprisoned  for  their  confession  of  Christ,  desired  them 
also  to  caution  the  people  against  unnecessarily  exciting  the  dis- 
pleasure of  their  enemies,  by  assembling  in  crowds  at  the  prison, 
in  order  to  administer  to  the  necessities  of  the  brethren  who  were 
held  in  confinement.^  It  is  represented  by  Eusebius  as  an  un- 
usual cruelty  in  Licinius,  that  he  prohibited  the  Christians  from 
visiting  their  associates  whom  he  had  imprisoned,  and  supplying 
them  with  food,  though  no  adequate  provision  was  made  for  their 
sustenance  by  the  magistrates.* 

The  ministers  of  the  churches  also  in  their  imprisonment,  exile, 
or  voluntary  retreat  into  seclusion,  to  avoid  the  persecuting  ma- 
gistrates, were  accustomed  to  communicate  with  their  people  by 
messengers  and  letters.  Cyprian  appointed  certain  ministers  of 
the  church  of  Carthage,  to  convey  his  letters  to  his  people  and 
return  their  replies,  and  maintained  a  continual  correspondence 
with  them  during  the  two  years  of  his  concealment.^ 

It  was  customary  likewise  to  employ  ministers  of  the  church 
as  messengers  to  convey  letters  to  distant  churches  and  indivi- 
duals, and  give  and  receive  advice.  Thus  Clemens  sent  the 
letter  of  the  church  of  Rome  to  the  Corinthians  by  messengers, 
and  intimates  the  expectation  that  the  Corinthians  would  respond 
by  a  written  or  verbal  message  on  their  return.^  The  letter  of 
Ignatius  to  the  Philadelphians,  exhibits  it  as  becoming  them  to 
ordain  a  deacon  to  go  on  an  embassy  to  the  church  of  Antioch, 
to  congratulate  it  on  its  release  from  persecution,  and  represents 
that  some  of  the  neighboring  churches  had  already  sent  bishops, 
presbyters,  or  deacons  ;'  and  that  that  letter  was  to  be  sent  to  Phil- 
adelphia from  Troy,  by  one  who  had  been  commissioned  by  the 
cimrches  of  Ephesus  and  Smyrna,  to  attend  him  to  that  place,  on 
his  way  to  Rome.®  There  is  a  similar  request  in  his  letter  to  the 
Smyrnians,^  and  to  Polycarp.'"  This  custom  of  the  church  is  ac- 
cordingly represented  by  the  author  of  the  supposititious  conslitn- 

'  Eusebii  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  iv.  c.  23.  '  Apologetici.  c.  39. 

'  Epist.  V.  Edit.  Lips.  1838.  *  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  .x.  c.  8. 

*  Epist.  xxix.  «  c.  59.  '  c.  10.  "  c.  11.  »  c.  11.  "  c.  7 


THE   VISION   OF  THE  DEITY.  51 

tions  ascribed  to  the  apostles,  as  expressly  enjoined  by  them.  '*  If 
any  Christian  be  condemned  by  the  idolaters  to  the  spectacles, 
the  beasts,  or  the  mines,  for  llie  name  of  Christ,  do  not  neglect 
him,  but  send  of  your  earnings  for  his  sustenance,  and  a  gift  to 
the  soldiers,  that  he  may  be  better  treated."^ 

It  is  apparent  thus  from  the  New  Testament,  and  the  histories 
of  the  ages  that  immediately  followed  the  period  of  the  revela- 
tion, that  messengers  were  customarily  sent  by  the  churches  to 
those  who  were  imprisoned  or  banished,  to  administer  to  their 
wants  and  ask  instruction,  who  carried  back  their  letters  and 
verbal  counsels.  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  therefore  that  the 
individuals  denominated  angels,  were  messengers  sent  by  the 
churches  to  which  the  letters  are  addressed,  to  visit  the  apostle 
in  his  exile,  express  to  him  their  affection,  and  receive  from  him 
encouragement  and  instruction  in  their  difficulties.  They  were 
ministers  of  the  word,  manifestly  from  the  duties  enjoined  on 
them,  and  were  delegates  doubtless  of  the  teachers  of  the  several 
churches,  and  were  on  that  account  addressed  as  their  represen- 
tatives. The  reason  accordingly  that  the  epistles  were  addressed 
to  those  churches  and  not  to  others,  probably  was,  that  messen- 
gers were  sent  by  them  to  the  apostle  ;  while  the  reason  that  they 
sent  those  messengers  probably  was,  that  they  were  the  great  and 
conspicuous  churches  of  that  part  of  Asia,  that  they  sustained 
peculiar  relations  to  him,  and  that  they  eminently  needed  instruc- 
tion and  encouragement  in  tlieir  trials.  He  represents  himself 
as  their  companion  in  the  affliction  and  kingdom  and  patience  of 
Jesus  Christ.  He  is  said  by  the  early  writers  to  have  resided 
at  Ephesus  toward  the  close  of  life,  and  to  have  died  there. '^ 
He  not  improbably  therefoYe  had  visited  all  those  churches  which 
were  in  the  circuit  round  Ephesus,  and  become  familiar  with 
their  ministers  and  members. 


SECTION  VI. 

CHAPTER  IV.   1-11. 

THE    VISION    OF    THE    DEITY. 


After  these,  I  looked,  and  behold  a  door  opened  in  heaven,  and 
the  first  voice  which  I  had  heard  as  of  a  trumpet  speaking  to  me 

'  Apostol.  Const,  lib.  v.  c.  I.  "  Eusebii  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  iii.  c.  20,  lib.  v.  c.  24. 


52  THE   VISION   OF  THE  DEITY, 

saying ;  Ascend  here,  and  I  will  show  thee  what  must  be  after  these. 
And  immediately  I  was  in  the  Spirit.  And  behold  a  throne  set  in 
heaven,  and  one  sitting  on  the  throne.  And  he  who  sat  was  in  ap- 
pearance like  a  jasper  stone  and  sardius.  And  an  iris  arched  over 
the  throne  in  appearance  like  an  emerald.  And  circling  round  the 
throne  [were]  four  and  twenty  thrones,  and  on  the  thrones  four  and 
twenty  elders  sitting,  clothed  in  white  garments,  and  on  their  heads 
golden  crowns.  And  from  the  throne  proceeded  lightnings  and 
voices  and  thunders.  And  seven  lamps  of  fire  [were]  burning  before 
the  throne,  which  are  the  seven  spirits  of  God.  And  in  front  of 
the  throne  [was]  as  it  were,  a  glassy  sea,  like  crystal.  And  be- 
fore the  throne  and  in  the  circuit  of  the  throne,  four  living  creatures 
full  of  eyes  before  and  behind.  And  the  first  living  creature  [was] 
like  a  lion,  and  the  second  living  creature  like  an  ox,  and  the  third 
living  creature  had  a  face  as  of  a  man,  and  the  fourth  living  crea- 
ture [was]  like  an  eagle  flying.  And  the  four  living  creatures  had 
each  six  wings,  around  and  within  full  of  eyes.  And  they  have  no 
pause  day  and  night,  saying,  Holy,  holy,  holy  Lord  the  God  Al- 
mighty who  was  and  who  is  and  who  is  to  come.  And  when  the 
living  creatures  give  glory  and  honor  and  thanks  to  him  who  sits  on 
the  throne  who  lives  forever  and  ever,  the  four  and  twenty  elders  fall 
before  him  who  sits  on  the  throne,  and  worship  him  who  lives  for- 
ever and  ever,  and  cast  their  crowns  before  the  throne,  saying,  Thou 
the  Lord  our  God  art  worthy  to  receive  glory  and  honor  and  power, 
for  thou  didst  create  all  things  ;  and  for  thy  will  they  were,  and  were 
created. 

The  spectacle  presented  in  this  vision,  was  designed  to  show 
that  it  was  from  the  Deity  that  the  revelation  about  to  be  made 
proceeded,  and  to  raise  the  prophet  to  a  becoming  sense  of  his 
infinite  greatness,  independence,  relations  and  rights  as  creator, 
and  the  grounds  on  which  he  builds  his  government :  and  with 
what  a  beauty  of  wisdom  were  the  means  suited  to  the  end  ; — 
the  disclosure  to  him  through  the  disparted  heavens  of  a  form 
of  dazzling  majesty,  accompanied  by  the  insignia  of  deity,  light- 
nings perpetually  effulging  from  his  presence,  resounding  thun- 
ders, and  the  loftiest  forms  of  created  intelligences  and  regal 
shapes  of  the  redeemed  bending  at  his  feet,  chanting  him  the 
tSelf-existent,  the  Eternal,  the  Omnipotent,  the  Holy,  the  Creator 
of  all,  and  acknowledging  his  right  because  of  those  attributes 
and  relations  to  dominion  over  his  works.  Our  nature  is  so 
tormed,  as  to  be  irresistibly  borne  by  such  a  sight  to  the  convic- 
tion that  it  is  the  Deity  who  reveals  himself  to  us,  and  filled  with 
an  irrepressible  sense  of  his  right  to  our  homage.  It  is  this  that 
distinguishes  us  from  irrational  beings,  and  fits  us  to  be  subjects 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  DEITY.  53 

of  law ;  on  this  that  God  founds  his  government,  and  will  main- 
tain it  throughout  our  existence  ;  through  this  that  each  spirit 
as  it  passes  into  the  invisible  world  and  is  raised  to  a  clear  per- 
ception of  his  being,  presence,  and  relations,  becomes  instantly 
aware  of  its  responsibility  to  him,  and  the  justice  or  grace  oi 
his  dealings  with  it ;  and  through  this  that  when  the  Redeemer 
shall  come  in  the  clouds  with  power  and  great  glory,  all  the 
tribes  of  the  earth  will  immediately  recognise  him,  and  sink  over- 
whelmed with  a  consciousness  of  guilt  and  inability  to  escape 
his  wrath. 

As  lamps  can  be  the  Spirit  of  God  only  as  representatives,  the 
statement  that  the  seven  lamps  burning  before  the  throne  are  the 
seven  spirits  of  God,  is  an  express  explanation  of  them  as  sym- 
bols, and  indicates  accordingly  that  that  is  the  office  also  of  the 
other  agents  and  objects  in  the  visions. 

The  living  creatures  stationed  near  the  throne  are  intelligen- 
ces. They  stand  perpetually  in  the  presence  of  God.  They 
celebrate  his  deity,  his  moral  perfections,  and  his  work  and  right 
as  creator.  They  sustain  relations  of  superiority  to  the  elders, 
as  it  is  in  concurrence  with  them  that  the  latter  fall  down  and 
worship.  They  performed  offices  in  the  conduct  of  the  revela- 
tion also,  summoning  the  symbolic  agents  as  the  seals  were 
opened,  and  delivering  to  the  angels  the  vials  of  wrath.  They 
are  intelligences  of  our  race  also,  as  is  seen  from  their  uniting  in 
the  acknowledgment  of  Christ's  worthiness  to  receive  the  book 
and  open  its  seals,  because  of  his  having  redeemed  them  by  his 
blood,  made  them  kings  and  priests  unto  God,  and  appointed 
them  to  reign  on  the  earth  :  chap.  v.  9, 10.  This  is  indicated  also 
by  the  human  face  of  those  seen  by  Ezekiel,  by  which  these  are 
to  be  interpreted.  That  face  undoubtedly  denotes  the  order  of 
intelligences  to  which  they  belong,  while  the  office  of  the  other 
faces  and  the  numerous  eyes  is,  to  indicate  the  far  superior  sen- 
ses and  vaster  grasp  of  thought  to  which  they  are  there  exalted. 

The  elders  are  also  of  our  race,  as  is  seen  from  their  form, 
and  their  acknowledgment  of  Christ  as  their  Redeemer:  chap.  v. 
They  filled  offices  likewise  in  conducting  the  revelation,  in 
hymning  the  right  of  God  to  reign  over  his  creatures,  and  the 
worthiness  of  Christ  to  be  exalted  to  the  throne,  and  conduct 
the  administration  of  the  world  during  the  work  of  redemption. 
One  of  them  also  addressed  the  prophet,  and  apprized  him  that 
though  no  creature  was  adequate  to  unveil  the  divine  purposes 
respecting  the  work  of  salvation,  yet  the  God-man,  the  Lion  of 
the  tribe  of  Judah,  iiad  acquired  ihat  right  by  his  mediation,  and 


54  THE  VISION  OF  THE  DEITY. 

would  receive  and  open  the  book.  They  appear  in  their  own 
persons,  from  the  want  of  analogous  agents  to  represent  them. 
No  other  order  of  beings  has  undergone  such  a  change  in  their 
mode  of  existence  as  disembodied  spirits  ;  no  other  sustains  such 
relations  to  God  as  they  who  are  redeemed. 

The  living  creatures  and  elders  are  representatives  of  the  mul- 
titude of  the  redeemed  in  heaven,  it  would  seem  from  their  ac- 
knowledgment of  Christ's  having  redeemed  them  by  his  blood 
unto  God  out  of  every  tribe  and  language  and  people  and  nation, 
chap.  V. ;  a  reason  for  his  exaltation  to  the  administration  of  the 
universe  common  to  all  the  redeemed  ;  and  as  the  tribes  and  lan- 
guages and  peoples  and  nations  are  very  numerous,  implying  also 
a  far  greater  number  than  the  living  creatures  and  elders  united. 
Besides  that  relation  as  symbols  of  liie  redeemed  in  heaven,  they 
also  manifestly,  from  the  vials  of  odors  which  they  hold  symbolic 
of  the  homage  of  the  saints,  sustain  a  representative  office  to- 
wards other  holy  beings  ;  as  the  office  of  priest  to  which  the  of- 
fering of  incense  belongs,  is  universally  representative.  They 
sustain  undoubtedly  therefore  that  official  relation  to  another  or- 
der of  beings.  Whether  it  be  to  the  redeemed  on  earth  alone, 
or  to  other  holy  beings  also,  which  is  not  improbable,  the  lan- 
guage does  not  determine. 

While  these  two  classes  are  thus  representatives  of  the  whole 
body  of  the  redeemed  in  heaven,  tiiey  yet  differ  greatly  from 
each  other  ;  the  living  creatures  being  stationed  nearest  the 
throne,  superior  in  rank  to  the  elders,  and  preceding  them  in  acts 
of  worship.  Whether  the  difference  be  merely  in  station  and 
office,  or  in  nature  also,  is  left  in  uncertainty.  The  living  crea- 
tures may  be  glorified  saints  who  have  been  translated  like 
Enoch  and  Elijah,  and  raised  from  the  dead  like  the  many  who 
were  raised  after  Christ's  resurrection  ;  or  they  may  be  disem- 
bodied spirits  differing  from  the  elders  in  wisdom  and  dignity, 
as  star  differs  from  star  in  glory. 

This  view  of  the  station  and  relations  of  the  living  creatures 
to  the  multitude  of  worshippers,  is  corroborated  by  the  cherubic 
symbols  in  the  tabernacle  and  temple,  which  were  made  after  the 
pattern  of  heavenly  things.  In  the  holy  of  holies,  which  denoted 
the  heavenly  temple,  were  stationed  two  cherubs  on  either  side 
the  throne  or  mercy-seat,  and  numerous  figures  of  them  were 
wrought  on  the  curtains  of  the  tabernacle,  and  graven  on  the 
doors  and  walls  of  the  temple  ; — those  in  the  inner  sanctuary  de- 
noting that  some  of  their  order  are  perpetual  altendanls  of  God  ; 
those  in  the  outer,  that  others    fill    offices  to  the  vvorshij)pers  on 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  DEITY.  55 

earth  and  perhaps  in  other  worlds,  and  bear  back  to  God  notices 
of  their  honnage  and  love. 

This  is  in  accordance  with  the  great  purpose  of  the  Redeemer 
to  raise  those  whom  he  saves,  to  a  grandeur  of  nature  like  his  own 
glorified  iuimanity,  and  a  dignity  of  station  in  his  kingdom  suited 
to  their  intimate  relations  to  him.  They  are  heirs  of  God,  and 
joint  heirs  with  Christ,  and  kings  and  priests  unto  him,  and  are 
to  reign  on  tiie  earth,  not  doubtless  in  respect  to  one  another,  but 
to  others,  and  not  in  respect  to  the  unglorified  church  on  earth 
alone  perhaps,  but  to  other  orders  also  of  holy  beings,  and  thus 
be  the  ministers  in  gathering  together  in  one  all  things  in  Christ, 
both  which  arc  in  heaven  and  which  are  on  earth. 

How  august  the  view  the  vision  thus  presents  of  the  govern- 
ment of  God  !  How  gracious,  how  wise,  how  beautiful  that  the 
majestic  beings  who  serve  in  his  immediate  presence,  are  ap- 
pointed to  offices  of  rule  and  love  to  the  holy  dwelling  in  distant 
realms  of  his  empire,  and  returning  serve  as  representatives  of 
those  orders,  and  present  to  him  symbols  of  their  homage!  In 
what  grandeur  it  exhibits  the  work  of  redemption,  through  which 
men  are  exalted  to  that  station,  made  the  agents  of  displaying  its 
greatness  and  beauty  to  all  orders  of  intelligences,  and  thence  of 
advancing  them  to  a  loftier  understanding,  a  more  fervent  love, 
and  a  higher  enjoyment  of  God  ! 

It  is  no  obstacle  to  this  construction,  that  there  were  cherubim 
anterior  to  the  redemption  of  any  of  our  race.  Their  name  is  a 
name  of  office,  not  of  nature,  as  is  apparent  from  the  fact,  that 
the  elders  are  not  cherubim,  though  they  as  well  as  the  living 
creatures  are  of  our  race.  That  that  office  was  sustained  by 
another  order  of  beings  in  earlier  periods  of  the  universe,  is  no 
demonstration  that  the  redeemed  are  not  exalted  to  it  under  the 
reign  of  Christ. 

The  worship  of  the  living  creatures  and  elders  bespeaks  a  lofty 
perfection  of  knowledge  and  beauty  of  rectitude.  They  are 
aware  of  the  attributes  that  distinguish  God  from  creatures  : — 
self-existence,  eternity,  independence,  omniscience,  omnipotence ; 
and  they  adore  him  for  that  which  he  is.  They  see  and  realize 
his  title  as  creator  to  dominion  over  his  works,  and  make  that  a 
ground  of  tlieir  acknowledgment  and  celebration  of  his  right  to 
reign.  Their  sensibility  to  the  glory  of  his  moral  perfections  is 
raised  to  a  refinement  and  strength,  equal  to  tiie  perfection  of 
their  intelligence.  They  see  an  infinite  beauty  in  his  spotless 
righteousness,  his  unchangeable  truth,  his  boundless  benignity, 
his  majestic  condescension,  and  the  vast,  the  all-perfect,  and  innu- 


56  THE  VISION  OF  THE  DEITY. 

merable  forms  in  which  they  are  displayed  toward  his  creatures, 
and  are  borne  by  an  irresistible  impulse  of  delight  to  their  per- 
petual celebration.  How  beautiful  in  beings  raised  from  the  dis- 
tance, the  blindness,  the  alienation  of  revolt !  How  becoming 
tiiose  who  serve  in  the  immediate  presence  of  the  Almighty,  and 
fill  the  offices  of  kings  and  priests  towards  distant  obedient 
hosts,  unfolding  to  them  his  rights,  interpreting  the  measures  of 
his  administration,  conveying  to  them  his  will,  and  representing 
them  in  his  presence  by  presenting  symbols  of  their  homage  ! 
What  a  contrast  their  conceptions  of  him  and  the  grounds  of  duty 
to  him  form  to  the  speculations  of  men,  who  in  their  definitions 
of  virtue  almost  universally  exclude  all  peculiar  relations  to  the 
Deity,  and  resolve  it  into  policy,  self-love,  benevolence,  opinion, 
or  some  other  quality  which  implies  that  the  reason  that  God  is 
to  be  adored  and  obeyed,  and  man  to  be  loved,  is  precisely  the 
same,  and  wholly  overlooks  therefore  his  peculiar  rights  because 
of  his  nature  and  agency  !  The  doctrine,  indeed,  that  self-love 
is  the  only  motive  to  virtue,  dethrones  the  Deity,  and  exalts  the 
individual  creature  in  his  place.  The  theory  that  opinion  is  the 
ground  and  rule  of  right,  deifies  in  like  manner  the  community 
which  furnishes  that  opinion  ;  and  the  dogma  that  benevolence 
is  the  distinguishing  ground  and  characteristic  of  virtuous  acts, 
deifies  the  sensitive  and  intelHgent  universe,  in  the  proportion 
which  their  limited  capacity  of  happiness  bears  to  the  infinitude 
of  his.  With  what  horror  would  the  authors  of  those  systems  have 
turned  from  them,  had  they  studied  aright  the  views  and  senti- 
ments of  these  worshippers  in  the  heavenly  temple.  Blessed  is 
lie  who  reads  and  they  who  hear  the  words  of  the  prophecy,  and 
keep  the  things  that  are  written  in  it. 

Mr.  Stuart  exhibits  the  seven  lamps  burning  before  the  throne, 
as  denoting  seven  presence  angels  ;  but  it  is  inconsistent  with  the 
symbolizations  of  this  and  the  following  vision,  and  with  the 
wish  of  grace  in  chapter  i.  5,  from  the  seven  spirits  which  they 
denote.  That  those  spirits  are  not  created  intelligences,  is  ap- 
parent from  the  use  of  lamps  as  their  symbols,  and  from  the 
agency  they  are  employed  to  represent.  Had  the  design  been  to 
symboHze  created  intelligences  of  an  angelic  order,  they  would 
doubtless  have  been  exhibited  in  their  own  persons,  as  the  angels, 
living  creatures,  and  the  elders  are  in  this  and  the  following 
vision.  Beside,  if  the  seven  lamps  are  regarded  as  symbols  of 
created  intelligences,  according  to  the  use  of  other  symbols  of 
creatures  in  this  and  the  other  visions,  they  should  be  interpreted 
as  representing  an  order  and  a  vast  multitude,  not  themselves 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  DEITY.  ST 

only.  The  agency  moreover  which  the  action  of  the  lamps  rep- 
resents, is  not  appropriate  to  created  intelligences  stationed  in  the 
presence  of  God.  The  office  of  a  lamp  is  to  give  light  to  intel- 
ligent creatures,  in  order  to  the  employments  to  which  they  are 
called  ;  and  as  the  body  is  the  counterpart  of  the  mind,  and  the 
corporeal  eye  of  the  spiritual,  the  light  which  is  designed  for  the 
former  must,  according  to  analogy,  be  the  symbol  of  knowledge 
imparted  to  the  latter.  The  agent,  therefore,  symbolized  by  the 
lamps,  is  an  agent  that  enlightens  intelligent  creatures  in  the  know- 
ledge of  God,  and  especially  men,  towards  whom  peculiarly  it  is 
that  the  offices  are  sustained,  and  the  agencies  exerted  that  are 
represented  by  the  lamps,  manifestly  from  the  wish  of  grace  and 
peace  to  the  seven  churches  from  the  spirits  which  they  denote. 
But  angels  are  not  assigned  to  that  office  ;  it  is  the  pecuhar  work 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  He  therefore  undoubtedly  from  that  con- 
sideration that  is  denoted  by  the  lamps  ;  and  that  is  certain  from 
the  invocation  of  grace  and  peace  from  the  seven  spirits  before  the 
throne,  as  well  as  from  him  who  is,  and  who  was,  and  who  is  to 
come,  and  from  Jesus  Christ  the  faithful  witness,  the  firstborn 
from  the  dead,  and  the  ruler  of  the  kings  of  the  earth.  That  in- 
vocation is  an  act  of  the  highest  religious  homage.  It  involves 
an  ascription  to  that  which  the  seven  lamps  denote,  of  the  attri- 
butes and  prerogatives  of  the  Deity  ;  and  the  union  in  the  invoca- 
tion of  that  which  they  denote  with  the  Self-existent,  and  the  in- 
carnate Word,  implies  that  it  is  equal  in  nature,  rights  and  rela 
tions  toward  us  with  the  Father  and  the  Son.  But  it  is  impossi- 
ble that  God  can  have  sanctioned  the  ascription  to  creatures,  of 
the  attributes,  rights,  and  relations  that  are  peculiar  to  himself;  and 
it  is  in  contradiction  also  to  the  obvious  aim  and  most  conspicu- 
ous symbolizations  of  the  book  ;  the  object  of  which  is  to  show 
on  the  one  hand  that  the  self-existent,  eternal,  and  almighty  creator 
is  alone  entitled  to  worship,  and  that  the  true  worshippers  ac- 
knowledge his  right  to  reign  over  them  because  of  his  attributes 
and  work  as  creator,  and  pay  to  him  alone  their  homage  ;  and  on 
the  other,  that  they  who  legislate  over  his  rights  and  laws,  usi}rp 
a  dominion  over  him,  and  make  themselves  objects  of  worship ; 
and  that  they  who  yield  to  that  usurpation  and  accept  creatures 
as  their  religious  lawgivers,  mediators,  and  redeemers,  ascribe  to 
them  his  prerogatives,  and  pay  them  a  homage  that  is  due  only  to 
him.  No  construction  therefore  could  be  more  at  war  with  the 
great  characteristics  of  the  revelation,  than  that  the  seven  lamps 
are  representatives  of  angels. 

The  supposition  that  they  are  a  symbol  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is 

8 


58  THE  VISION  OF  THE  DEITY. 

not  inconsistent  with  the  law  that  no  hving  creatures  can  be  em- 
ployed to  represent  the  creator,  as  lamps  have  neither  intelli- 
gence nor  hfe.  Their  station  before  the  throne  exhibits  him  in 
the  relation  ascribed  to  him  in  the  Scriptures  in  the  work  of  re- 
demption, as  sent  by  the  Father  and  the  Son  ;  and  the  office  de- 
noted by  the  radiation  of  light  by  the  lamps,  is  that  which  he  is 
represented  as  filling  in  the  illumination  and  sanctification  of  men. 

Mr.  Stuart  represents  the  living  creatures  as  symbols  of  the 
attributes  of  God.  But  that  is  inconsistent  alike  with  the  divine 
nature,  the  law  of  symbolization,  and  the  agency  ascribed  to  the 
living  creatures.  It  implies  the  greatest  of  all  solecisms,  that  the 
attributes  of  God  exist  separate  from  himself.  Why  else  should 
they  be  separately  symbolized  ?  or  how  could  they  consistently 
with  the  supposition  that  the  form  addressed  as  the  self-existent, 
eternal,  and  almighty,  truly  represents  him  as  such  ?  If  the  being 
enthroned  truly  symbolizes  God  as  self-existent,  eternal,  and  al- 
mighty, what  necessity  could  exist  of  other  symbols  exterior  to 
himself,  representative  of  his  attributes  ? 

But  it  is  as  irreconcileable  with  the  law  of  symbolization  as  it 
is  with  the  divine  nature.  If  there  be  any  rule  of  representation 
that  is  indisputable,  and  the  observation  of  which  is  indispensa- 
ble to  the  interpretation  of  the  visions,  it  is  that  agents  symbol- 
ize agents,  and  agencies  agencies.  There  is  no  analogy  between 
an  agent  and  a  mere  attribute  ;  between  a  nature  of  many  differ- 
ing characteristics,  and  a  single  characteristic  of  that  or  some 
other  nature.  Attributes  are  predicates  of  agents,  and  each  class 
or  peculiar  combination,  is  characteristic  of  the  class  of  agents 
of  which  it  is  predicable,  and  is  to  be  regarded  as  theirs,  as  ab- 
solutely as  their  activity,  life,  or  form.  If  a  symbol  then  be  a 
living  agent,  nothing  can  be  more  certain  than  that  the  attributes 
which  are  predicable  of  it  belong  to  itself,  and  thence  if  ihey  are 
divine,  demonstrate  it  to  be  divine  also.  His  assumption,  there- 
fore, that  the  living  creatures  symbolize  divine  attributes,  implies 
not  that  the  attributes  of  the  personage  seated  on  the  throne  are 
divine,  but  that  they  are  themselves  divine  persons. 

It  is  inconsistent  also  with  the  representation  that  the  living 
creatures  fall  down  and  worship  him  that  sits  on  the  throne,  and 
hymn  him  as  the  self-existent,  eternal,  almighty,  and  all-holy. 
What  can  be  more  incongruous  than  thus  to  represent  the  attri- 
butes of  the  Self-existent  as  separate  agents,  bending  in  homage 
to  his  form  conceived  as  symbolizing  his  mere  nature  irrespective 
of  his  attributes,  and  ascribing  themselves  to  him  ! 

Mr.  Mede  and  some  others  regard  the  living  creatures  as  sym- 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  DEITY.  59 

bols  of  the  church  or  congregation  of  worshippers  on  earth,  and 
the  elders  as  representatives  of  the  ministers  ;  Mr.  Daubiiz  inter- 
prets the  Hving  creatures  as  symbols  of  the  ministers  of  the 
church  on  earth,  and  the  elders  as  representing  the  congregation 
of  worshippers  ;  Vilringa  exhibits  the  elders  as  denoting  the 
rulers  of  the  church,  and  the  living  creatures  its  eminent  teachers 
and  ministers  through  every  age.  But  if  they  are  symbols  of  the 
church  on  earth,  then  must  the  throne  and  he  who  sat  on  it  be 
regarded  as  symbolizing  a  visible  throne  and  monarch  in  the 
church  on  earth,  the  temple  a  scene  of  worship  here,  the  angels 
an  order  of  worshippers  who  are  not  of  the  church,  and  the  wor- 
ship, a  worship  paid  to  some  being  visibly  throned  in  the  church 
on  earth.  But  as  there  is  no  one  who  has  here  seated  himself 
on  a  throne  in  the  church,  and  demanded  a  worship,  but  anti- 
christ, that  construction  makes  the  vision  a  symbol  of  the  Man 
of  Sin,  and  the  idolatrous  worship  paid  to  him  by  the  apostate 
church,  which  is  impossible.  None  of  the  agents  and  actions  of 
the  heavenly  temple  are  symbolic  of  agents  and  actions  on  earth. 
The  assumption  on  which  these  writers  proceed,  involves  them 
in  like  manner  in  inextricable  difficulties  in  their  exposition  of 
many  other  passages. 

Dr.  Hammond  exhibits  him  who  sat  on  the  throne,  as  the  me- 
tropolitan bishop  of  Judea,  as  a  representative  of  God  ;  the  elders 
as  diocesan  bishops  of  Judea,  and  the  living  creatures  as  four 
apostles,  as  symbols  of  the  saints  who  are  to  attend  the  Almighty 
as  assessors  in  judgment.  But  that  is  first  to  make  a  creature  a 
symbol  of  God,  which  is  against  analogy  ;  and  next  to  exhibit  the 
living  creatures  and  elders  as  ascribing  the  attributes  and  acts 
of  the  deity  to  a  creature,  and  paying  him  the  highest  homage, 
which  is  to  represent  them  as  guilty  of  the  false  worship  which 
the  prophecy  exhibits  as  the  peculiarity  of  apostates.  There 
moreover  is  not  only  no  evidence  nor  probability  of  the  existence, 
at  the  period  to  which  he  refers  the  vision,  the  reign  of  Claudius, 
of  either  what  he  denominates  a  metropolitan  bishop  at  Jerusa- 
lem, or  twenty-four  or  any  other  number  of  diocesan  bishops  in 
Judea  ;  but  the  most  ample  demonstration  that  neither  of  those 
orders  were  in  existence  at  the  period  of  the  visions.  The  ear- 
liest mention  of  a  metropolitan  is  in  the  acts  of  the  council  of 
Nicaea  in  the  fourth  century  ; — the  earliest  existence  of  diocesan 
bishops,  of  which  there  is  any  proof,  toward  the  close  of  the 
second. 

The  annunciation  in  this  and  the  first  vision,  that  the  self- 
existence,  eternity,  omnipotence,  and  work  of  God  as  creator, 


60  DELIVERY  OF  THE  BOOK  TO  CHRIST. 

give  him  a  right  to  reign,  and  are  the  ground  on  which  he  founds 
his  government,  presents  the  first  great  truth  of  the  Apocalypse, 
in  the  hght  of  wliich  all  the  other  visions  are  to  be  contemplated 
in  order  to  discern  their  import.  The  true  worshippers  are  they 
who  acknowledge  and  honor  him  for  what  he  is,  and  refuse  to 
yield  to  usurping  creatures  the  homage  that  is  due  only  to  him. 
The  antagonist  powers  are  they  who  usurp  his  rights,  and  claim 
a  worship  which  supersedes  his  ;  and  the  apostate  worshippers 
they  who  yield  those  usurpers  their  claims,  and  ascribe  to  them 
prerogatives  and  honors  that  belong  only  to  the  creator. 


SECTION  VII. 

CHAPTER   V.     1-14. 
THE    DELIVERY    OF    THE    BOOK    TO    CHRIST. 

And  I  saw  in  the  right  hand  of  him  who  sat  on  the  throne,  a  book 
written  within  and  on  the  back,  sealed  with  seven  seals.     And  I 
saw  a  mighty  angel  proclaiming  with  a  loud  voice,  Who  is  worthy 
to  open  the  book  and  loose  its  seals  ?     And  no  one  in  heaven,  nor  on 
the  e.artli,  nor  under  the  earth  was  able  to  open  tlie  book,  nor  to  look  at  it. 
And  I  wept  much  that  no  one  was  found  worthy  to  open  the  book,  nor  to 
look  at  it.     And  one  of  the  elders  said  to  me,  Weep  not.     Behold  the 
Lion   who  is  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  the  Root  of  David,  has  prevailed 
to  open  the  book  and  its  seven  seals.     And  I  saw  in  the  midst  of  the 
throne  and  the  four  living  creatures  and  in  the  midst  of  the  elders,  tlie 
Lamb,  standing  as  slain,  having  seven  horns,  and  seven  eyes,  which 
are  the  seven  spirits  of  God  that  are  sent  to  all  the  earth.     And  he 
came  and  took  the  book  from  the  right  hand  of  him  who  sat  on  the 
throne  ;  and  when  he  took  the  book,  the  four  living  creatures,  and  the 
four-and-twenty  elders  fell  before  the  Lamb,  having  every  one  harps 
and  golden  vials  full  of  incense  which  are  the  prayers  of  the  saints. 
And  they  sing  a  new  song,  saying,  Thou  art  worthy  to  take  the  book 
and  to  open  its  seals ;  for  thou  wast  slain,  and  hast  redeemed  us  to 
God  by  thy  blood  out  of  every  tribe  and  tongue  and  people  and  na- 
tion, and  hast  made  us  to  our  God  kings  and  priests,  and  we  shall 
reign  on  the  earth.     And  I  looked,  and  I  heard  the  voice  of  many 
angels  in  a  circle  round  the  throne,  and  the  living  creatures,  and  the 
elders,  and  their  number  was  ten  thousands  of  ten  thousands  and 
thousands  of  thousands,  saying  with  a  loud  voice,  Worthy  is  the 
Lamb  who  was  slain  to  receive  power,  and  riches,  and  wisdom,  and 


DELIVERY  OF  THE  BOOK  TO  CHRIST.  m. 

Strength,  and  honor,  and  glory,  and  blessing.  And  every  creature 
which  is  in  heaven  and  on  the  earth  and  under  the  earth,  and  whatever 
is  in  the  sea,  and  all  that  are  in  them  I  heard  saying.  To  him  who 
sits  on  the  throne  and  to  the  Lamb,  blessing  and  honor  and  glory  and 
dominion  forever  and  ever.  And  the  four  living  creatures  said, 
Amen.     And  the  four-andtwenty  elders  fell  and  worshipped. 

The  object  of  this  great  scene  was  to  shovi^  that  Christ  is  ex- 
alted to  the  throne  and  exercises  the  government  of  the  universe  ; 
that  he  attained  that  exaltation  by  his  work  as  Redeemer  ;  that 
thence  the  right  belongs  to  him  alone  to  reveal  to  creatures  his 
designs ;  and  that  he  is  to  conduct  his  administration  in  the  re- 
demption of  his  people  according  to  the  eternal  purposes  of  God. 
That  the  Lamb  who  is  the  eternal  Word  having  seven  horns 
and  seven  eyes,  the  symbols  of  all-perfect  dominion  and  all-per- 
fect knowledge,  had  been  slain,  was  indicated  by  the  glory  to 
which  in  consequence  of  his  death  his  human  form  was  changed 
at  his  resurrection.  The  book  was  the  symbol  of  the  purposes 
of  God.  The  seals  by  which  it  was  closed,  denoted  that  his  de- 
signs in  regard  to  the  administration  of  the  church  and  world, 
were  hidden  from  creatures;  and  the  summons  by  the  angel,  who 
is  worthy  to  open  the  book  and  to  loose  its  seals,  that  no  created 
being  was  capable  unaided  of  discerning  it,  or  of  a  dignity  equal 
to  the  office  of  revealing  it  to  the  hosts  of  heaven  or  the  church 
on  earth.  The  disappointment  and  tears  of  the  apostle  that  no 
one  was  found  worthy  to  open  the  book,  or  to  inspect  it,  bespeak 
a  fervid  interest  in  the  divine  purposes,  and  an  expectation  that 
great  and  wonderful  events  were  approaching.  The  mode  is 
eminently  beautiful  in  which  the  elder  apprized  him  that  the  Re- 
deemer was  to  make  known  and  execute  the  divine  designs.  He 
spoke  of  him,  not  as  the  Self-existent,  but  as  the  incarnate  Word. 
Weep  not.  The  Lion  who  is  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  the  Root  of 
David,  has  prevailed  to  open  the  book  and  its  seven  seals.  He 
who  assumed  our  nature  has  become  the  head  of  the  church,  and 
is  to  reign  over  it  as  lawgiver  and  teacher,  and  complete  the  work 
of  redemption. 

Expositors  generally  have  regarded  the  Lamb  standing  as  slain, 
as  literally  a  lamb  symbolizing  the  Redeemer ;  not  the  Redeemer 
himself  in  his  human  form,  which  showed  that  he  had  been  slain, 
by  the  majesty  to  which  in  consequence  of  his  death,  it  was 
transfigured  at  his  resurrection.  But  they  appear  not  to  have 
considered  that  the  metaphorical  titles  by  wliicii  he  is  designated 
in  the  ancient  Scriptures  and  in  the  gospels,  are  appropriated  to 
him  as  proper  names  in  the  Apocalypse.     Thus  he  is  in  this 


62  DELIVERY  OF  THE  BOOK  TO  CHRIST. 

passage  denominated  the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  and  the  Root 
of  David  ;  and  in  others,  the  Word,  the  Offspring  of  David,  and 
the  Star.  In  accordance  with  that  usage,  the  term  Lamb  in  this 
and  the  numerous  other  passages  in  which  it  occurs,  is  to  be  re- 
garded as  merely  a  proper  name  of  the  incarnate  Word  drawn 
from  his  office  as  a  sacrifice.  That  construction  is  required  also 
by  analogy.  It  is  inconsistent  with  his  deity  and  office  as  ruler 
of  the  universe,  that  he  should  be  symbolized  by  a  mere  crea- 
ture and  a  lamb.  A  lamb  was  suited  to  represent  him  only  in 
his  human  and  mortal  nature,  and  in  the  relation  of  a  passive  suf- 
ferer of  a  violent  death.  It  had  no  adaptation  to  symbolize  him 
as  a  self-existence,  the  revealer  and  executor  of  the  divine  pur- 
poses, and  the  ruler  and  judge  of  the  universe.  A  mere  creature 
can  only  symbolize  a  creature  ;  God  alone  can  represent  himself. 
The  Redeemer  accordingly  appears  in  his  own  person  in  his  hu- 
man nature  glorified,  in  all  the  visions  in  which  he  is  seen.  In 
conformity  with  this,  acts  are  ascribed  to  him, — the  reception  of 
the  book,  and  opening  of  the  seals, — that  are  proper  to  his  nature 
and  office  as  the  incarnate  Word,  but  wholly  inappropriate  to  a 
lamb. 

The  presence  of  the  angels  and  of  the  redeemed,  shows  that 
the  revelation  was  made  to  them  as  well  as  to  men. 

The  worship  of  the  living  creatures  and  elders  on  Christ's  re- 
ception of  the  book,  bespeaks  on  the  one  hand  in  the  most  em- 
phatic manner  his  deity,  and  on  the  other  their  sense  of  the  pro- 
priety of  his  exaltation  as  the  head  of  the  church.  Thou  art 
worthy  to  be  the  revealer  and  the  executor  of  tiie  divine  pur- 
poses respecting  the  salvation  of  men,  for  thou  wast  slain  and 
hast  redeemed  us  to  God  by  thy  blood  out  of  all  nations,  and  hast 
made  us  to  our  God  kings  and  priests,  and  we  shall  reign  on  the 
earth.  It  is  meet  that  he  should  reign  and  conduct  the  work  of 
salvation,  not  only  that  he  may  display  his  deity,  and  adequacy 
to  the  work,  and  that  the  universe  may  behold  and  acknowledge 
him  as  divine,  and  testify  their  sense  of  the  rightfulness,  wisdom 
and  glory  of  his  work  ;  but  also  that  those  whom  he  has  constitu- 
ted heirs  of  God  and  joint  heirs  with  him,  and  exalted  to  majes- 
tic stations  in  the  conduct  of  his  kingdom,  may  fill  those  offices 
in  a  conspicuous  relation  to  him  as  their  head,  in  whose  presence 
in  his  glorified  form  alone  it  is  that  their  nature  especially  fits 
them  to  serve,  and  will  still  more  pre-eminently  fit  them  when 
they  shall  be  raised  from  the  grave  in  a  like  glorious  shape.  The 
responsive  ascriptions  of  the  angelic  myriads  bespeak  their  per- 
fect knowledge  of  the  deity  of  Christ,  his  incarnation  and  sacri- 


DELIVERY    OF    THE    BOOK    TO    CHRIST.  63 

fice,  the  great  purposes  and  influence  of  his  death,  and  the  pro- 
priety that  he  should  assume  the  government  of  the  w^orld,  and 
be  the  revealer  and  executor  of  his  designs.  The  cliant  of  ac- 
quiescence that  then  came  from  all  the  distant  realms  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  ascriptions  both  to  God  and  to  the  Lamb  of  honor  and 
glory  and  power  forever  and  ever,  is  inimitably  grand,  denoting 
an  acquaintance  also  with  the  Redeemer's  work,  a  sense  of  its 
infinite  importance  to  God  and  his  empire,  a  direct  personal  and 
joyous  interest  in  it,  and  assurance  that  it  is  to  display  his  glory 
in  dazzling  effulgence,  and  contribute  to  the  wisdom  and  bless- 
edness of  his  whole  kingdom. 

A  vast  and  august  recognition  is  thus  made  in  this  scene  of  all 
the  great  truths  on  which  the  government  of  the  universe  and  the 
redemption  of  men  proceed, —  the  nature,  the  agency,  the  rela- 
tions, the  rights  of  God  ;  the  knowledge  and  celebration  of  his 
perfections  both  by  the  beings  who  serve  in  his  presence,  and  who 
dwell  in  his  distant  realms  ;  the  exaltation  of  the  Redeemer  to 
supreme  dominion,  and  exercise  of  the  office  of  revealer  to  the 
heavenly  hosts  and  the  church  on  earth  ;  the  suitableness  of  his 
assuming  that  station  because  of  the  demonstration  it  presents 
of  his  deity  ;  the  appropriate  relations  to  him  into  which  it  raises 
the  redeemed  who  are  heirs  of  God  and  joint  heirs  with  him  ;  the 
vindication  which  the  greatness  of  its  results  is  to  form  of  the 
'propriety  of  his  interposition ;  and  finally  the  understanding 
acknowledgment  and  adoring  celebration  of  these  truths  by  all 
orders  of  his  intelligent  creatures  throughout  his  immeasurable 
kingdom. 

I'he  book  was  written  within  and  without.  Some  interpreters, 
forgetting  that  the  volume  was  a  symbol,  have  treated  it  as 
though  it  were  the  Apocalypse  itself  written  by  the  finger  of  God, 
and  attempted  to  distinguish  the  chapters  that  were  written  on 
the  outside.  Nothing  can  be  more  groundless,  or  could  involve 
the  whole  spectacle  in  more  preposterous  confusion  and  unintel- 
ligibleness. It  is  to  contradict  the  representative  character  of  the 
scene,  and  adopt  a  rule  of  construction  which  is  wholly  imprac- 
ticable in  respect  to  most  of  the  symbols.  If  the  book  were  not 
a  symbol  of  the  purposes  of  God,  but  the  Apocalypse  itself,  and 
its  characters  those  which  the  prophet  afterwards  inscribed  on 
his  scroll  and  which  form  our  present  Apocalypse,  then  all  the 
other  objects  in  this  and  the  following  scenes  must  on  the  same 
principle  be  likewise  taken  as  precisely  what  they  are  denomi- 
nated, and  without  any  mystical  meaning  ; — the  living  creatures, 
the  horsemen  with  the  bow,  the  sword  and  the  balance,  death 


64  DELIVERY    OF    THE    BOOK    TO    CHRIST. 

and  its  attendant,  and  all  the  monster  shapes  of  the  subsequtw" 
visions,  which  were  absurd  and  impossible.  That  assumption  is 
equally  irreconcilable  with  the  mode  in  which  the  symbolic  ob- 
jects were  presented  to  the  apostle  and  the  whole  revelation  con- 
ducted. They  were  exhibited  to  him  in  vision  acting  out  their 
representative  agency.  He  says  expressly  he  saw  the  horsemen 
go  forth  as  the  seals  were  successively  opened,  the  souls  at  the 
altar,  the  majestic  shape  ascending  from  the  east  with  the  seal 
of  God,  the  innumerable  company  clothed  in  white  robes,  and 
heard  the  voices  of  the  living  creatures,  the  cry  of  the  martyr 
spirits,  the  number  of  the  sealed,  and  the  ascriptions  by  the  palm- 
bearing  multitude  of  salvation  to  him  that  sat  on  the  throne  and 
to  the  Lamb  ;  not  that  mere  verbal  descriptions  of  them  such  as 
he  himself  wrote,  were  presented  to  him.  But  if  those  agents 
were  shown  him,  not  on  the  scroll,  but  visibly  in  a  distant  scene, 
of  what  instrumentality  to  their  manifestation  was  the  unfolding 
of  the  scroll,  or  the  inscription  on  it  of  those  voices  ?  Can  the 
proclamation  at  the  opening  of  the  third  seal  have  been  read  from 
the  sci-oll ;  the  cry  of  the  martyr  spirits,  the  answer,  and  the  call 
under  the  sixth  seal  of  the  kings  and  great  men  of  the  earth,  the 
bond  and  the  free,  to  the  rocks  to  fall,  and  to  the  mountains  to  cover 
them  from  the  face  of  him  who  sat  on  the  throne  ?  Were  the  ad- 
dresses of  the  interpreting  angel  ?  If  not,  how  did  their  inscrip- 
tion in  the  book  contribute  to  their  revelation  to  the  prophet  ? 
Were  the  first  five  chapters  which  preceded  the  opening  of  the 
seals,  embraced  in  the  volume  ?  Is  such  a  supposition  reconcila- 
ble with  the  representation  that  the  whole  of  its  contents  were 
unknown  and  undiscoverable  by  creatures  ?  If,  as  these  writers 
assume,  the  whole  of  the  events  belonging  to  each  seal  be  not  de- 
noted by  the  symbols  of  that  seal,  but  partly  by  others  inscribed 
on  the  exterior  of  the  scroll,  what  means  are  there  of  de- 
termining what  those  events  are  ?  On  what  grounds  that  are 
not  wholly  arbitrary,  and  at  war  with  all  order  and  certainty, 
can  it  be  assumed  that  the  series  of  events  denoted  by  the 
second,  third  and  fourth  seal,  begin  after  those  of  its  predecessor 
had  closed  ?  But  if  that  assumption  be  not  authorized, — and  it 
is  indisputably  clear,  that  they  are  cotemporary  through  long  pe- 
riods— on  what  principle  can  different  classes  of  cotemporaneous 
events  afterwards  revealed,  be  divided  among  those  cotemporary 
seals  ?  And  finally,  if  the  book  were  the  Apocalypse  and  not  a 
symbol,  why  was  it  not  after  the  visionary  exhibition,  delivered  to 
the  apostle  ?  Why  was  he  directed  to  write  what  he  saw,  rather 
than  copy  or  deliver  to  the  churches  that  which  was  already 


THE    FIRST    SEAL.  65 

written  by  the  pen  of  the  Almighty  ?  The  assumption  is  mani- 
festly embarrassed  in  every  relation  with  insuperable  difficulties. 
As  then  the  whole  revelation  was  obviously  conducted  without 
any  reference  to  the  inscription  on  the  book ;  as  the  seals  served 
no  other  office  than  to  signify  that  the  purposes  of  God  were 
unknown  and  undiscernable  by  creatures  ;  and  their  opening  by 
the  Redeemer  no  other  end,  than  to  show  that  to  him  alone  be- 
long the  power  and  right  to  unfold  and  execute  those  purposes  ; 
and  as  the  law  of  symbolization  itself  imperatively  requires  us 
to  regard  the  volume  as  a  mere  representative ;  it  is  manifest 
that  those  who  deem  it  the  Apocalypse  itself,  and  found  their 
constructions  on  that  assumption,  are  wholly  in  error ;  and  the 
inextricable  difficulties  in  which  their  theories  involve  them,  ex- 
emplify the  embarrassments  that  usually  spring  from  a  neglect,  in 
the  exposition  of  the  book,  of  the  law  of  analogy. 


SECTION  VIII. 

CHAPTER    VI.    1,2. 

THE  FIRST  SEAL. 


And  I  looked  when  the  Lamb  had  opened  one  of  the  seven  seals. 
And  I  heard  one  of  the  four  living  creatures  say,  as  a  voice  of  thun- 
der, Come.  And  I  looked,  and  lo,  a  white  horse,  and  he  that  sat  on 
him  having  a  bow,  and  a  crown  was  given  to  him,  and  he  went  forth 
conquering,  and  that  he  might  conquer. 

There  is  no  indication  that  the  spectacle  thus  displayed  to  the 
apostle  was  a  mere  delineation  on  the  scroll.  Nor  is  the  de- 
scription compatible  with  that  hypothesis.  So  far  from  it,  the 
symbol,  it  would  seem,  did  not  appear  until  after  the  summons 
by  the  living  creature.  Indeed,  it  was  to  the  horseman  undoubt- 
edly, not  the  prophet,  that  that  summons  was  addressed.  The 
xoCi  ^'Ks'Ks,  and  see,  of  the  received  text,  are  not  admitted  in  the 
best  editions.  The  voice  of  thunder  would  seem  extremely  dis- 
proportioned  if  addressed  to  the  apostle  ;  but  appropriate,  if  de- 
signed for  the  angelic  armies,  whose  number  was  so  vast  that  the 
stations  of  many  must  have  been  remote,  and  who  yet  cannot  be 
supposed  to  have  been  required  successively  to  approach  the 
throne,  in  order  to  see  the  scroll.  So  far  from  being  a  mere  pic- 
ture, or  verbal  description,  the  rider  and  horse,  it  is  apparent  from 
every  part  of  the  narrative,  and  from  the  laws  of  symbolization, 

9 


66  THE    FIRST    SEAL. 

were  living  agents.  The  apostle  not  only  says  that  there  was  a 
white  horse,  and  that  he  that  sat  on  him  had  a  bow,  but  that  a 
crown  was  given  to  him,  and  that  after  his  appearance  undoubt- 
edly ;  and  that  he  went  forth  conquering  and  that  he  might  con- 
quer ;  actions  which  could  not  be  represented  by  a  single  delin- 
eation, and  which  it  were  incongruous  to  ascribe  to  a  mere  picture, 
A  fictitious  action  moreover  cannot  be  a  representative  of  a  real 
one,  unless  it  be  acted  out  in  vision  before  the  prophet ;  nor  can 
an  agent  be  the  representative  of  an  action.  There  is  no  analo- 
gy on  which  to  found  such  a  representation,  no  relations  being 
more  conspicuously  the  converse  of  eacii  other,  and  no  dissim- 
ilarities more  absolute,  than  those  of  cause  and  effect.  All  the 
symbols  of  agents  in  the  Apocalypse  are  accordingly  agents,  and 
all  actions  of  agents  represented  by  corresponding  actions  of  sym- 
bols. And  that  mode  of  representation  is  obviously  requisite  in 
order  to  a  certainty  of  meaning.  Were  there  no  uniform  analo- 
gy between  the  sign  and  the  thing  signified, — if  a  thing  incapable 
of  action  might  both  represent  a  thing  like  itself  and  an  agent ; 
and  an  agent,  both  an  agent  and  a  thing  incapable  of  an  action  ; 
a  cause  an  effect,  and  an  effect  a  cause, — then  as  the  relations 
of  the  symbol  to  the  thing  represented  might  in  different  instances 
be  exact  opposites,  opposite  constructions  would  be  equally  prob- 
able, and  all  certainty  therefore  of  meaning  be  wholly  unattaina- 
ble. But  that  the  rider  and  horse  were  real  agents,  not  a  mere 
picture,  is  manifest  finally  from  the  scene  of  his  agency,  which, 
as  it  was  a  scene  into  which  he  went  forth,  and  was  the  theatre 
of  his  victories,  was  the  earth,  not  the  mere  scroll,  nor  the  heav- 
ens. The  opening  of  the  seal  manifestly  then  had  no  other  sig- 
nificance than  to  denote  that  it  was  by  the  act  of  the  Redeemer 
that  the  purposes  of  God  about  to  be  unfolded  were  revealed  ; 
and  no  other  instrumentality  in  the  revelation,  than  that  it  was 
the  signal  for  the  manifestation  in  vision  to  the  prophet,  of  the 
symbolic  spectacle  by  which  it  was  followed. 

The  personage  on  the  horse  is  a  warrior,  manifestly  from  his 
being  armed  with  a  bow  ;  an  instrument  in  chief  use  in  the  east 
at  that  period  by  cavalry  especially,  in  attacks  at  a  distance.  The 
crown  was  given  him  for  conquests  he  had  already  attained,  and 
denoted  that  he  had  gained  them  for  the  power  from  which  he 
drew  his  authority  and  received  liis  crown,  not  for  himself;  and 
that  he  had  conducted  his  warfare  therefore  conformably  to  the 
ends  and  laws  of  his  office.  Otherwise  he  would  not  have  re- 
ceived a  crown.  The  office  of  the  horse  was  simply  to  exhibit 
him  on  the  one  hand  in  the  attitude  in  which  victorious  warriors 


THE    FIRST    SEAL.  67 

appeared  when  decreed  a  crown  and  triumph,  and  on  the  other 
in  the  exercise  of  his  profession ;  a  mere  subsidiary  to  his  ex- 
erting a  representative  agency ;  as  in  the  vision  of  the  nineteenth 
chapter,  the  sword  proceeding  from  the  mouth  of  Christ,  is  de 
signed  merely  to  indicate  the  character  of  the  sentence  he  is  to 
pronounce  on  his  enemies,  and  the  horse  on  which  he  is  seated, 
that  he  is  to  descend  in  a  manner  suitable  to  his  station  as  a  vic- 
torious king,  to  execute  that  sentence. 

The  symbol  is  then  drawn  from  mihtary  and  civil  life  in  the 
Roman  empire  ;  in  which  it  was  customary  to  grant  a  triumphal 
return  to  the  capital,  and  a  crown  to  a  victorious  warrior,  which, 
as  it  was  the  act  of  the  senate,  was  a  civil  act ;  and  the  person- 
age taken  as  the  symbol  was  probably  Trajan,  who,  in  the  year 
96,  immediately  after  the  period  of  the  visions,  being  adopted  by 
Nerva  and  declared  by  the  senate  his  colleague  and  successor,* 
marched  with  a  powerful  army  against  the  Dacians,  gained  im- 
portant victories  and  conquests,  and  on  his  return  was  decreed  a 
triumph.^  Hadrian  and  the  Antonines,  who  followed  him,  princes 
of  a  similar  character,  and  under  whom  the  empire  continued  to 
flourish,  may  also  be  considered  as  embodied  in  the  horseman. 

As  the  symbol  is  thus  drawn  from  the  military  and  civil  cus- 
toms of  the  empire,  we  are  to  look,  in  order  to  find  the  persons 
denoted  by  it,  not  to  the  same,  but  some  resembling  department 
of  life ;  precisely  as  were  we  foreshown  that  some  agent,  having 
a  similitude  to  a  lion,  an  eagle,  or  a  dragon,  was  soon  to  appear 
on  the  theatre  of  the  world,  we  should  look,  not  for  the  animal 
itself  which  was  used  for  exemplification,  but  for  some  different 
agent  of  resembling  characteristics.  And  where  shall  we  find 
any  such  analogous  community  as  the  symbol  requires,  except  in 
the  religious  world  ?  any  such  conquerors,  except  in  the  faithful 
ministers  of  the  Christian  church  ?  or  any  such  conquests,  ex- 
cept in  the  conversion  of  worshippers  from  idols  to  God  ?  It  is 
to  them  that  we  are  naturally  led  by  the  Revealer,  and  the  great 
subject  of  the  Apocalypse,  and  in  them  and  them  alone  that  we 
find  the  correspondences  which  the  law  of  symbolization  demands. 
A  warrior  who  conquered  provinces  or  kingdoms,  transferred  the 
allegiance  of  the  vanquished  people  from  their  old  to  new  rulers. 
He  placed  them  under  new  laws  ;  he  impressed  a  new  character 
on  all  their  civil  and  military  relations.  So  the  minister  of  Christ 
who,  by  proclaiming  the  gospel,  became  the  instrument  of  con- 
verting individuals  and  comnmnilies  to  faith  in  him,  transferred 

'  D.  Cassii,  lib.  68,  c.  3,  4.     Gibbon's  Hist.  Decl.  and  Fall,  chap.  iii. 
»D.  Cassii,  lib.  68,  c.  10,  15. 


68  THE    FIRST    SEAL. 

their  supreme  love  from  self,  and  their  religious  homage  from  ihe 
idol  shapes  or  imaginary  deities  they  had  before  worshipped,  to 
the  true  God,  He  introduced  them  into  a  new  community.  He 
subjected  them  to  new  laws,  and  worked  a  radical  change  in 
their  moral  relations. 

And  no  similar  agencies  were  exerted,  no  like  agents  existed 
in  any  other  department  of  the  social  world  at  that  period.  The 
ministers  of  paganism  wrought  no  such  changes  in  that  or  the 
following  ages,  in  large  bodies  of  men  either  within,  or  without 
the  Roman  empire.  The  incorporation  into  the  state  of  new 
provinces  or  kingdoms  by  conquest,  brought  with  it  no  such 
revolution  in  their  religion.  There  were  none  but  idolaters  to 
be  vanquished,  and  the  conquered  were  universally  left  to  con- 
tinue their  homage  to  the  gods  they  had  before  worshipped.^ 
Nor  did  the  philosophers  of  that  or  the  following  ages,  the  only 
other  class  who  can  be  thought  to  exhibit  such  an  analogy  as  the 
symbol  requires,  work  any  such  revolution  in  the  principles  and 
practice  of  communities  or  large  numbers  of  men.  There  were 
no  philosophical  communities.  The  number  of  the  lettered  and 
thence  of  the  speculative,  was  extremely  small  compared  to  the 
multitude.  There  was  no  order  of  men  devoted  by  office  to  the 
propagation  of  philosophy.  The  philosophy  which  prevailed  at 
that  period  could  scarcely  have  rendered  tribes  that  were  van- 
quished, or  others  more  false  in  faith,  or  corrupt  in  morals,  than 
their  religion  had  already  made  them,  and  was  wholly  ineffica- 
cious for  reformation.  False,  shadowy,  and  absurd,  unaccom- 
panied by  any  firm  convictions  of  its  doctrines,  unattended  by 
any  influential  sanctions,  and  in  harmony  in  a  large  degree  with 
the  fashionable  idolatries  and  public  and  private  manners,  it  at 
best  left  their  pi^inciples  and  their  passions  as  it  found  them. 
The  requisite  resemblances  then  are  seen  in  the  ministers,  and  no- 
where else,  of  the  Christian  church,  who  make  conquests  to  the 
Redeemer  in  accordance  with  the  ends  and  laws  of  their  office. 

The  symbol  conqueror,  like  other  symbols  of  men  in  the  pro- 
phecy, is  the  representative,  not  of  an  individual  merely,  but  of 
the  pure  teachers  of  Christianity  at  large,  who  went  forth  from 
the  period  of  the  visions,  and  fulfilled  their  office  conformably  to 
the  word  of  God,  assailing  with  the  arrows  of  truth  the  hostile 
armies  of  idolatry,  and  subjecting  them  to  the  sceptre  of  Christ. 

In  correspondence  with  this  construction,  the  writers  of  the 

'  Nam  solere  Romanos  religiones  iirbium  siiperatarum  partim  privatim  per  fa- 
milias  spargere,  partim  publice  consecrari. — Arnobii  adv.  Gentes,  lib.  iii.  c.  38.  Gib- 
iraa's  Hist.  Decl.  and  Fall,  chap.  ii. 


THE    FIRST    SEAL.  69 

ages  that  immediately  followed  the  visions,  represent  that  there 
was  a  rapid  and  almost  uninterrupted  spread  of  the  gospel,  from 
the  last  years  of  the  first  century  especially,  until  the  persecution 
by  Decius  in  the  middle  of  the  third,  and  in  an  inferior  degree  to 
its  close.  Most  of  the  persecutions  of  the  long  space  from  Do- 
mitian  to  Decius  were  provincial,  of  short  continuance,  and  left 
the  large  body  of  the  Christian  teachers  to  continue  their  labors 
with  but  little  obstruction.^ 

This  construction  is  corroborated  by  the  perplexities  which 
embarrass  other  interpretations. 

1.  Those  who,  like  Grotius  and  Rosenmuller,  regard  it  as  sym- 
bolizing the  first  acts  of  the  war  of  Nero  and  Vespasian  against 
the  Jews,  or  other  calamities  of  that  people  immediately  prece- 
ding that  war,  are  obliged  to  assume  that  the  Apocalypse  was 
written  during  the  reign  of  Claudius  or  Nero  ; — if  in  the  former 
some  forty  years,  at  least,  and  if  in  the  latter  not  less  than  twenty- 
eight  or  nine,  earlier  than  the  date  ascribed  to  it  by  the  first  ec- 
clesiastical writers  ;  or  else  like  Eichhorn,  that  it  was  not  written 
until  twenty-five  or  six  years  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  and  was 
thence  a  mere  representation  of  the  past,  in  place  of  a  symboli- 
zalion  of  the  future. 

2.  The  ascription  to  it  of  so  early  a  date,  is  not  only  without 
any  adequate  historical  grounds  and  against  the  most  reliable 
testimony,  but  is  irreconcilable  with  the  representation  of  the 
Apocalypse  respecting  the  Asiatic  churches.  The  works  as- 
cribed to  them,  the  fidelity,  the  patience,  the  endurance  of  per- 
secution as  their  first  character,  and  at  length  their  decline  in 
love,  the  rise  among  them  of  false  teachers,  and  the  apostasy  of 
some  to  idolatry,  imply  not  only  that  a  period  of  some  length  had 
passed  from  their  first  establishment,  but  a  considerable  space 
also  after  the  ministry  of  Paul  at  Ephesus  had  closed.  Yet  no 
such  period  intervened  between  either  the  date  of  his  epistle  to 
the  Ephesians,  or  his  last  interview  with  the  elders  on  his  way 
to  Jerusalem,  if  the  Apocalypse  were  written  during  the  reign 
of  Claudius  or  Nero.  So  far  from  it,  the  periods  universally 
assigned  to  the  interview  and  the  epistle,  are  subsequent  to  the 
reign  of  Claudius,  which  terminated  October  13th,  in  the  year 
54  f  and  the  distance  from  those  dates  to  the  commencement  or 

'  Justini  Mart.  Dial,  cum  Tryph.  c.  117:  Irensei  adv.  hter.  lib.  i.  c.  3.  Tertul- 
liani  cont.  Jud.  c.  7.  Apologet.  c.  37.  Plinii  Epist.  97,  lib.  10.  Lactantii  de  Just, 
c.  13.  De  Mort.  Persecut.  c.  3.  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  v.  c.  21.  Lib.  viii.  c.  1. 
Mosheim,  Hist.  Church,  Cent.  ii.  p.  i.  chap.  i.  Cent.  iii.  p.  i.  chap.  i.  Mosheinii 
de  rebus  Christ,  secui.  ii.  pp.  203,  217. 

*  Lardner's  Credibility,  vol.  v.  p.  518. 


70  THE    FIRST    SEAL. 

close  even  of  the  persecution  by  Nero,  is  wholly  inadequate. 
His  visit  to  Miletus  is  usually  referred  to  the  year  58,*  and  his 
epistle  to  the  year  61.^  The  persecution  by  Nero  began  about 
the  middle  of  November  in  the  year  64,^  and  terminated  with  his 
death,  June  9th,  68.* 

In  neither  the  Acts  nor  the  epistle  is  there  any  intimation  of 
such  a  decline  of  the  Ephesian  Christians  from  their  first  love. 
In  place  of  exhibiting  them  as  already  sunk  into  lukewarmness, 
or  turned  to  false  doctrines,  the  apostle  warned  the  elders  in  his 
farewell  at  Miletus,  that  it  was  after  his  departure  that  false 
teachers  were  to  arise  and  draw  away  disciples.  His  martyrdom 
is  usually  assigned  to  the  year  65.^  It  is  incredible  therefore  that 
so  great  a  change  in  their  faith  and  practice  could  have  taken 
place  in  so  short  a  period — two  or  three  years. 

3.  There  are  no  indications  in  the  histories  of  that  period,  of 
any  persecution  of  the  church  during  the  reign  of  Claudius.^ 
Nor  is  it  certain,  though  probable,  that  Nero's  persecution,  which 
is  exhibited  as  the  first,''  extended  to  the  Asiatic  churches.^ 

4.  The  calamities  of  the  unbelieving  Jews  were  not  of  such 
interest  to  the  Asiatic  churches,  as  to  render  it  probable  that  so 
large  a  portion  of  the  Apocalypse  as  the  seals,  all  of  which  the 
commentators  in  question,  Grotius,  Dr.  Hammond,  Eichhorn,  and 
RosenmuUer,  apply  to  the  insurrections,  wars,  or  other  calamities 
of  that  people,  would  be  devoted  to  their  symbolization. 

5.  It  is  incredible  that  such  a  symbolization  was  made  after  the 
Jewish  war  had  begun  ;  yet  if  the  revelation  be  assigned  to  the 
last  year  of  Nero,  as  the  war  was  commenced  in  the  year  66,  its 
first  acts  preceded  it  at  least  one,  perhaps  two  years.° 

6.  There  is  no  correspondence  between  the  events  of  the  Jew- 
ish insurrections  and  wars,  and  the  symbols  of  the  sixth  seal.  A 
great  earthquake,  an  obscuration  of  the  sun,  an  eclipse  of  the 
moon,  a  fall  of  the  stars,  a  departure  of  the  heavens,  a  removal 
of  the  mountains  and  islands  from  their  places,  denote  a  univer- 


'  Lardiier's  Credibility,  vol.  v.  p.  526.  ^  Ibid.  vol.  vi.  p.  29,  37. 

'  Moshemii  De  reb.  Christiaiiorum,  cap.  34,  p.  107. 

■*  Pagi  Crit.  in  Ann.  Baron,  anno.  ()8,  n.  iii. 

'  Pagi  Crit.  in  Annal.  Bar.  anno.  65,  no.  ii.  67,  no.  iii.  Lardner's  Credibil.  vol  v. 
p.  535. 

°  Pagi  Crit.  in  Annal.  Baronii,  ann.  268,  no.  vi.  an.  269,  no.  ii. 

'  Tertulliani  Apolog.  c.  5.  Lactautii  de  Mort.  Fersecut.  c.  2.  Eusebii  Eccl. 
Hist.  lib.  ii.  c.  25. 

"  Moshemii  de  reb.  Christ,  ante  Const,  sec.  i.  c.  35.  Pagi  Crit.  in  Annal.  Baron 
anno.  64,  no.  iii.  iv.  v. 

*  Pagi  Crit.  in  Annal.  Baronii.  anno.  66,  no.  ii.  no.  iii. 


THE  FIRST  SEAL.  71 

sal  convulsion  of  the  political  world,  and  overthrow  of  every  form 
of  government.  All  classes  of  rulers  and  all  orders  of  subjects 
are  represented  accordingly  as  overwhelmed  with  the  conviction 
that  their  civil  and  social  relations  were  forever  terminated.  The 
kings  of  the  earth,  and  the  great  men,  and  the  commanders  of  a 
thousand,  and  the  rich  and  the  mighty,  and  every  bondman  and 
freeman,  hid  themselves  in  the  caves  and  in  the  rocks  of  the 
mountains,  and  said  to  the  mountains  and  to  the  rocks,  Fall  on  us 
and  hide  us  from  the  face  of  him  who  sits  on  the  throne  and  from 
the  wrath  of  the  Lamb ;  for  the  great  day  of  his  wrath  is  come, 
and  who  is  able  to  stand  ?  Not  the  slightest  resemblance  subsists 
between  this  terrific  prediction,  and  the  events  of  the  Jewish  war. 
No  kings  were  interested  in  that  war.  No  government  was  over- 
thrown by  it.  The  Jews  were  not  an  independent  people,  but 
conquered  and  tributary,  and  the  result  of  their  revolt,  after  vast 
slaughters  and  the  destruction  of  their  cities,  was  their  reduction 
again  to  submission.  Though  many  were  driven  into  other 
provinces,  and  many  sold  into  servitude,  yet  a  vast  proportion  of 
the  survivors  continued  to  reside  in  their  native  land,  and  again 
at  the  distance  of  sixty  years,  attempted  to  throw  off  the  Roman 
yoke,  and  met  a  still  more  disastrous  defeat. 

But  the  demonstration  of  their  error  is  completed,  by  the  ab- 
surd and  impossible  construction  of  many  of  the  other  symbols, 
to  which  the  rule  on  which  they  proceed  must,  if  legitimate,  lead. 
If  as  they  assume,  in  looking  to  the  Roman  military  and  civil 
history  for  the  agents  and  agencies  denoted  by  the  seals,  the  sym- 
bol and  that  which  it  symbolizes  belong  to  the  same  class  ;  then 
must  death  on  the  pale  horse  and  the  grave  his  attendant,  denote 
the  entrance  on  the  apocalyptic  earth,  of  a  throng  and  succession 
of  precisely  such  agents  and  objects ;  the  monster  locusts  and 
horsemen  of  the  trumpets,  must  foreshow  the  rise  of  armies  and 
successions  of  similar  shapes  ;  and  the  seven-headed  and  ten- 
horned  wild  beast  portend  a  herd  and  series  of  such  monsters ; 
and  no  approach  to  a  verification  of  their  views  of  the  prophecy 
can  be  made,  except  by  a  demonstration  of  the  appearance  and 
agency  on  the  theatre  of  the  empire  of  those  non-existences. 

The  application  of  the  symbol  by  Mr.  Jurieu  and  others  to 
Roman  emperors  of  the  first,  or  first  and  second  centuries,  is  ob- 
noxious to  similar  objection.  They  assume  that  the  symbol  and 
the  symbolized  agent  are  of  the  same  species,  and  set  aside 
therefore  the  law  of  analogy.  The  victories  and  conquests  of  the 
emperors  of  those  periods,  were  of  no  such  significance  as  to  en- 
title them  to  a  representation  in  the  prophecy.     They  were  of 


72  THE  FIRST  SEAL. 

no  higher  importance  lo  the  empire  itself,  than  many  others  of  a 
later  age  that  are  not  noticed  in  it.  They  sustained  no  peculiar 
relations  to  the  church,  no  Christians,  or  but  a  very  inconsidera- 
ble number,  entering  at  that  period  into  the  Roman  armies. 
They  exerted  no  influence  whatever,  as  far  as  can  be  discerned, 
either  to  accelerate  or  retard  the  spread  of  the  gospel  and  conver- 
sion of  individuals  or  communities.  And  finally  the  principle  on 
vv^hich  that  construction  is  founded,  must  if  legitimate,  be  taken 
as  the  key  likewise  of  every  other  part  of  the  prophecy,  and 
force  us  to  the  conclusion  that  the  symbolizations  of  the  fourth 
seal,  the  fifth  and  sixth  trumpets,  the  seven-headed  dragon,  the 
ten-horned  and  two-horned  wild  beasts,  can  only  be  accomplished 
by  the  appearance  on  the  apocalyptic  stage,  of  agents  like  those 
monster  shapes. 

Similar  incongruities  embarrass  their  views,  who  have  regard- 
ed the  horse  as  symbolizing  the  Roman  people,  or  armies ;  not 
as  the  mere  instrument  by  which  the  rider  fulfils  his  oflfice.  It  is 
to  confound  the  horse  of  a  warrior,  with  the  associate  warriors, 
that  as  subordinates  conquer  with  him  ; — a  mere  subsidiary  by 
which  he  more  successfully  leads  his  squadrons,  with  the  squad- 
rons themselves  which  he  leads  to  battle  and  victory.  The  white 
steed  rode  by  Sylla  in  the  battle  with  the  Samnites,  was  as  subsi- 
diary to  his  oflSce  as  the  sword  which  he  bore,  and  could  no  more 
be  made  a  representative  of  his  cohorts,  than  the  color  by  which 
he  was  distinguished,  or  the  ground  on  which  he  trod. 

It  subverts  all  certainty  in  respect  to  the  other  parts  of  the 
symbol.  If  the  horse  be  not  a  mere  subsidiary,  exhibiting  the 
rider  in  the  exercise  of  his  profession,  on  what  ground  can  the 
bow  be  regarded  as  denoting  the  nature  of  that  profession,  or  the 
crown  the  result  of  his  conflicts  ?  What  proof  is  there  that  he  is 
a  warrior,  not  a  civil  magistrate,  or  that  his  victories  were  gained 
in  the  battle-field,  not  in  the  hippodrome  ? 

Mr.  Brightman  regarded  truth  as  the  horseman,  and  interpreted 
his  conquests  of  the  successes  of  the  Christian  apologists  during 
the  reigns  of  Hadrian  and  the  Antonines.  But  that  is  to  make 
an  intelligent  agent,  the  representative  of  a  mere  abstract  quality, 
or  characteristic  of  propositions,  which  is  against  analogy. 

Grotius  regarded  the  gospel  as  the  horse,  and  Christ  in  his 
kingly  character  as  the  rider;  Cocceius,  the  church  as  the  horse, 
and  the  horsemen  as  ecclesiastical  teachers  and  rulers.  These  in- 
congruous constructions  bespeak  the  same  inacquaintance  with  the 
principle  of  symbolic  representation,  as  those  interpretations  which 
exhibit  the  symbol  and  thing  symbolized  as  of  tlie  same  species. 


THE  SECOND  SEAL.  ^73 

Those  who  have  interpreted  the  symbol  as  prophetic  of  the 
prosperity  of  the  church,  have  yet  placed  their  construction  on 
mistaken  grounds ; — some,  as  Grotius,  Mr.  Mede,  Mr.  Whiston, 
and  Vitringa,  seeming  to  found  that  solution  on  the  assumption 
that  the  personage  on  the  horse  is  the  Son  of  God,  not  discern- 
ing that  he  never  appears  except  when  accompanied  by  express 
designations  and  symbols  of  his  deity,  and  that  it  is  unbefitting  his 
dignity  that  he  should  be  made  the  representative  of  his  minis- 
ters ;  and  others,  as  Dean  Woodhouse,  building  their  interpreta- 
tion, not  on  the  laws  of  symbolization,  but  on  the  erroneous  as- 
sumption that  the  prophecy  foreshadows  none  but  ecclesiastical 
agents  and  events. 


SECTION  IX. 

CHAPTER   VI.   3-4. 

THE    SECOND    SEAL. 


And  when  he  opened  the  second  seal,  I  heard  the  second  living 
creature  say,  Come.  And  there  went  forth  another  a  red  horse.  And 
to  him  that  sat  on  him,  it  was  given  to  take  peace  from  the  earth, 
and  that  they  should  kill  one  another.  And  there  was  given  to  him 
a  great  sword. 

The  summons  by  the  living  creature  was  undoubtedly  address- 
ed in  this  instance  as  before  to  the  symbolic  agent,  not  to  the 
prophet. 

This  horseman  is  a  warrior  also.  The  sword  like  the  bow,  is 
the  instrument  of  contest  and  dominion,  but  is  more  destructive, 
and  as  it  is  used  only  in  close  combat,  not  like  the  bow  at  a  dis- 
tance, is  employed  with  greater  passion,  and  is  the  implement 
alike  of  defence,  of  ambition,  and  of  revenge. 

This  warrior  takes  peace  from  the  earth.  He  is  aggressive 
therefore  as  well  as  the  former,  not  occupied  in  self-defence  ; 
but  unlike  him  employs  himself  in  endeavoring  to  conquer  the 
empire  which  it  is  his  office  to  sustain.  He  interrupts  and  de- 
stroys the  security  and  peace  which  he  is  bound  to  promote,  and 
grasps  at  an  authority  and  dominion  that  do  not  belong  to  him. 
He  uses  his  sword  therefore  for  personal  and  sinister  objects,  and 
against  the  ends  for  which  it  is  designed  ;  and  accordingly  is  not 
crowned,  but  only  obtains  a  greater  sword,  by  which  his  power  to 

10 


74  THE  SECOND  SEAL. 

destroy  is  increased.  And  in  thus  taking  peace  from  the  earth, 
he  prepares  the  way  for  his  own  destruction.  As  he  conspires 
against  others  and  slays  them,  so  he  is  himself  conspired  against, 
and  thus  usurper  supplants  usurper,  and  the  slaughter  of  one  set 
of  favorites  and  adherents  is  quickly  followed  by  the  slaughter 
of  another. 

This  symbol  also  like  the  former  is  taken  from  military  and 
political  hfe  in  the  Roman  empire.  Such  destroyers  of  peace 
and  fomentors  of  slaughter  were  the  long  train  of  conspirators 
and  usurpers  that  rapidly  followed  each  other  from  the  beginning 
of  the  reign  of  Commodus  to  the  accession  of  Diocletian  ;  and 
the  individual  taken  for  the  symbol  is  perhaps  Quadralus  the 
first  in  the  series,  who  attempted  the  assassination  of  the  em- 
peror in  the  year  183.  After  Quadratus,  Perennis,  Maternus, 
and  Oleander  having  been  thwarted  in  their  designs  on  his  life, 
the  plot  of  Lsetus  at  length  succeeded  in  the  year  192.^  Perlinax 
who  was  chosen  his  successor  was  immediately  conspired  afgainst 
by  one  of  the  consuls,  and  at  the  end  of  three  months  beheaded 
by  the  praetorian  guards,  to  whom  he  owed  his  elevation.  The 
election  of  Julian  in  his  place  was  contested  by  Albinus  in  Bri- 
tain, Niger  in  Syria,  and  Severus  in  Pannonia.  Severus  having 
destroyed  his  competitors  Julian,  Albinus  and  Niger,  was  plotted 
against  by  his  son  Caracalla.''^  On  the  accession  of  Caracalla 
and  Geta,  to  whom  he  left  the  empire,  they  conspired  against 
each  other.  Oaracalla,  after  having  assassinated  Geta,  became 
the  victim  of  his  ministers.  Macrinus  his  successor  soon  fell  in 
the  contest  with  his  rival  Elagabalus.  In  less  than  two  years 
Elagabalus  was  assassinated  by  his  guards.  After  a  short  reign 
his  successor  Alexander  Severus  was  conspired  against  by  Max- 
imin  and  slain.  The  two  Gordians  whom  the  senate  elevated  as 
successors  to  Severus,  met  a  speedy  death.  Maximin  was  in 
the  beginning  of  the  fourth  year  of  his  reign  assassinated  by 
his  own  troops,  and  Maximus  and'  Balbinus  the  successors  of  ti)e 
Gordians  at  Rome,  slaughtered  by  the  praetorian  guards.  The 
third  Gordian  was  soon  dispatched  by  his  successor  Philip.^ 
After  a  reign  of  five  years  Philip  was  slain  in  a  battle  with  De- 
cius,  whom  the  legions  of  Maesia  had  invested  with  the  purple. 
Against  Gallus,  who  on  the  fall  of  Decius  in  the  war  with  the 
Goths  was  chosen  his  successor,  Emilianus  a  successful  rival 
soon  rose  ;  and  Emilianus,  at  the  end  of  four  months,  was  dis- 

*  Gibbon's  Hist.  Decl.  and  Fall,  chap.  iv.  '  Gibbon's  Hist.,  chap.  v. 

•  Gibbon's  Hist.  chap.  vi.  vii. 


THE   SECOND  SEAL.  76 

patched  by  his  competitor  Valerian,  After  the  capture  of  that 
prince  by  the  Persians,  the  throne  of  his  son  Galhenus  was  at- 
tempted during  the  eight  following  years  by  nineteen  usurpers. 
On  the  death  of  Gallienus,  the  sceptre  of  Claudius,  whom  he  had 
nominated  his  successor,  was  contested  by  Aureolus:  and  during 
the  reign  of  Aurelian,  the  next  in  the  train,  numerous  aspirants 
contended  for  the  empire  both  in  the  west  and  in  the  east,  and 
revolts  continued  to  mark  the  short  reigns  which  followed,  with 
the  exception  of  that  of  Carus,  till  on  the  assassination  of  his  son 
Carinus,  the  empire  submitted  to  Diocletian.' 

These  usurpers  and  rivals  took  peace  from  the  earth.  They  not 
only  rendered  the  throne  and  life  of  the  monarch  insecure,  and  the 
fortunes  and  lives  also  of  all  his  powerful  ad}ierents,but  spread  ter- 
ror, devastation,  and  slaughter  through  the  whole  empire.  With 
the  chief  fell  also  his  partisans  whose  station  or  agency  rendered 
them  objects  of  fear  or  resentment.  Tiie  contests  between  the 
legions  were  civil  wars,  and  carried  all  the  mischiefs  of  a  defeat 
to  the  provinces  whose  candidate  proved  unsuccessful.  The 
magistrates  who  had  favored  him  were  treated  as  traitors,  and 
the  inhabitants  surrendered  as  a  legitimate  prey  to  the  exaspera- 
ted passions  of  the  soldiers.^ 

For  the  counterpart  to  the  military  and  political  agent  in  this 
symbol,  we  are,  as  in  the  former  instance,  to  look  to  the  religious 
world.  As  the  symbolized  agents  are  not  of  the  same  class  as 
the  symbol,  but  of  an  analogous  species,  they  are  not  an  order 
that  literally  bear  a  sword  and  gain  their  victories  by  force,  but 
that  conquer  by  persuasion  and  authority,  and  whose  dominion 
therefore  is  religious,  not  military  and  political.  And  they  are 
of  the  Christian  church,  as  there  have  been  no  other  religious 
teachers  since  the  date  of  the  visions,  tiiat  have  not  relied  chietly 
or  wholly  on  mere  force  for  the  propagation  of  their  doctrines. 
The  pagans  employed  it  to  sustain  theirs  at  the  period  of  the 
revelation,  and  for  several  ages  after.  The  Mahometans,  the 
only  authors  of  a  new  religion,  relied  on  the  sword  to  spread 
their  faith,  and  propagated  it  only  as  they  conquered.  But  the 
only  official  weapons  of  the  Christian  teachers  are  those  of  per- 
suasion and  authority.  The  agents  whom  the  symbol  denotes 
are  teachers  therefore  of  the  church. 

To  slay  one  another  with  the  sword  being  to  destroy  by  vio- 
lence,— as  the  counterpart  of  the  natural  life  is  the  spiritual, — 
to  destroy  each  other's  spiritual  life  by  violence,  is  to  sentence  to 

'  Gibbon's  Hist.  chap.  x.  xi.  xii.  '  Gibbon's  Hist.  chap.  v. 


76  THE  SECOND  SEAL. 

an  exclusion  from  salvation  by  what  is  deemed  an  authoritative 
act ;  and  in  a  still  higher  sense,  to  compel  one  another  by  the 
power  of  their  office  to  embrace  an  apostate  religion,  by  which 
they  naturally  and  necessarily  perish. 

What  class  then  of  teachers  and  rulers  is  there  in  the  church, 
in  whose  agency  these  peculiarities  meet ; — a  usurpation  of 
powers  which  Christ  has  not  authorized,  an  interception  thereby 
of  religious  peace  from  the  earth,  and  finally  a  compulsion  of 
men  to  apostasy  in  order  to  confirm  and  perpetuate  that  usurpa- 
tion. 

All  these  are  conspicuous  characteristics  of  diocesan  bishops, 
especially  of  the  Asiatic,  African,  Greek,  and  Latin  churches. 

The  bishops  of  the  churches  instituted  by  the  apostles  were 
not  a  separate  order  from  presbyters,  as  is  manifest  from  the  ap- 
propriation of  the  titles  bishop  and  presbyter  as  equivalent  to  each 
other  to  the  same  individuals,  and  the  omission  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament of  all  notice  of  the  institution  or  existence  of  a  diocesan 
order.  Nor  were  diocesans  introduced  into  the  church  until  a 
long  period  after  the  apostolic  age,  manifestly  from  the  fact  that 
no  ecclesiastical  writings  that  are  entitled  to  be  regarded  as 
genuine,  of  an  earlier  date  than  the  latter  part  of  the  second 
century,  present  any  indications  of  their  existence. 

As  no  spacious  edifices  were  erected  by  Christians  for  their  wor- 
ship during  the  first  two  centuries,  and  it  was  inexpedient  in  seasons 
of  persecution  to  assemble  in  large  bodies,  the  converts  in  the  cities 
were  distributed  into  several  congregations  which  met  in  the  syna- 
gogues of  the  Jews,  in  private  houses,  in  apartments  appropria- 
ted to  schools,  and  at  length  in  cemeteries,  caves,  and  other  se- 
cluded places,  where  they  might  hope  to  escape  the  notice  of 
their  enemies  ;  and  the  number  of  presbyters  accordingly  was 
increased  in  proportion  to  the  separate  assemblies. 

The  whole  of  the  communicants  of  the  several  congregations 
of  a  city  were  considered  as  one  church,  and  all  their  presbyters 
as  presbyters  of  that  church,  though  each  probably  statedly 
taught  in  a  particular  assembly.^  The  presbyters  were  of  equal 
authority.  No  one  had  any  official  precedence  of  the  others. 
No  one  had  any  higher  power  over  his  own  particular  congrega- 
tion, than  each  of  the  others  over  his.     Nor  had  any  one  any 

'  That  is  implied  in  the  letter  of  Clemens  to  the  Corinthians,  written  probably 
within  a  short  period  after  the  Apocalypse.  It  is  not  easy  to  see  how  a  faction 
could  have  ejected  some  of  the  presbyters  of  that  church  from  tlicir  stations,  ex- 
cept by  gaining  a  majority  in  the  congregations  in  which  they  taught.  He  repre- 
eeuts  it  as  the  work  of  a  party,  not  of  the  church  at  large. 


THE  SECOND  SEAL.  77 

authority  in  respect  to  the  church  at  large,  but  such  as  was  com- 
mon to  all. 

The  churches  of  the  several  cities  were  in  like  manner  equal 
in  right  and  authority,  and  wholly  independent  of  each  other, 
and  neither  they  nor  the  presbyters  had  any  legislative  power 
either  over  themselves  or  others. 

Before  however  the  close  of  the  second  century,  strifes  for 
distinction  and  power  arose  among  the  presbyters,  each  one 
claiming  a  peculiar  right  to  his  own  congregation,  or  those  whom 
he  introduced  into  the  church,  and  endeavoring  to  retain  them 
under  his  control  independently  of  the  other  presbyters  and  con- 
gregations. And  to  remedy  this  evil,  it  was  decreed  through 
the  church  generally,  by  the  councils  doubtless  which  began  to 
be  held  at  that  period,  that  one  chosen  by  the  presbyters  of  their 
own  number  and  invested  with  the  requisite  powers,  siiould  be 
placed  over  the  others,  and  denominated  their  bishop.  The  new 
office,  however,  thus  instituted,  instead  of  a  check  to  ambition, 
was  a  contrivance  to  gratify  it,  by  creating  a  power  and  dignity 
greatly  surpassing  any  to  which  mere  presbyters  could  be- 
fore aspire  ;  and  accordingly  inflamed  in  a  proportional  degree 
in  both  orders  the  desire  of  conspicuity,  honor,  wealth,  and 
influence,  and  soon  gave  rise  to  intrigues,  rivalries,  and  con- 
tests, that  were  fatal  to  the  peace  of  the  church  and  the 
empire,  and  has  continued  to  generate  them  through  every  sub- 
sequent age. 

That  such  was  the  origin  of  the  order,  is  asserted  or  implied 
by  several  of  the  most  distinguished  writers  who  flourished  soon 
after  the  nationalization  of  the  church.  Thus  Jerome  :  "  A 
presbyter  therefore  is  the  same  as  a  bishop,  and  before  by  the 
instigation  of  the  devil  religious  parties  were  formed,  and  it  was 
said  among  the  people,  I  am  of  Paul,  I  of  Apollos,  and  I  of 
Cephas,  the  churches  were  governed  by  the  common  council  of 
the  presbyters.  But  afterwards  when  every  one  regarded  those 
whom  he  baptized  as  his  own,  not  Christ's,  it  was  decreed 
through  the  whole  world,  that  one  chosen  from  the  presbyters 
should  be  placed  over  the  others,  that  he  might  be  charged  with 
the  whole  care  of  the  church,  and  the  occasions  of  sciiism  re- 
moved. Does  any  think  it  is  merely  our  opinion,  not  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  Scriptures,  that  bishop  and  presbyter  are  one, 
the  one  being  the  title  of  age,  and  tiie  other  of  office.  Let  him 
read  the  words  of  Paul  to  the  Pliihppians  :  Paul  and  Timothy, 
servants  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  all  the  saints  in  Christ  Jesus  who 
are  at  Philippi,  with  the  bishops  and  deacons,  grace  to  you 


78  THE  SECOND  SEAL. 

and  peace,  Philippi  is  a  city  of  Macedonia,  and  there  surely 
cannot  have  been  in  one  city  many  bishops  of  the  kind  now  de- 
noted by  that  title.  But  as  at  that  time  bishops  were  the  same 
as  those  who  were  called  presbyters,  he  denominated  them  in- 
differently bishops  and  presbyters.  If  this  still  seem  doubtful 
to  any  one,  let  it  be  confirmed  by  another  proof.  It  is  written 
in  the  Acts  of  the  apostles,  that  when  Paul  had  reached  Mile- 
tus, he  sent  to  Ephesus  and  called  the  presbyters  of  the  church 
of  that  city,  to  whom  on  their  arrival  among  other  things  he  said, 
Take  heed  to  yourselves  and  to  all  the  flock  over  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  placed  you  bishops,  to  feed  the  church  of  the  Lord  which 
he  purchased  with  his  own  blood.  Here  notice  carefully,  that 
those  whom  he  calls  presbyters  of  the  single  city  Ephesus,  he 
afterwards  denominates  bishops." 

"These  things  we  have  quoted  that  we  might  show  that  among 
the  ancients  presbyters  and  bishops  were  the  same,  but  that  grad- 
ually, in  order  that  the  germs  of  dissensions  might  be  extirpated, 
the  whole  care  was  devolved  on  one.  As  therefore  the  presbyters 
know  that  it  is  by  the  custom  of  the  church  that  they  are  subject- 
ed to  him  who  is  placed  over  them,  so  the  bishops  should  know 
that  it  is  rather  by  custom  than  a  veritable  divine  appointment, 
that  they  are  superior  to  presbyters,  and  ought  to  govern  the 
church  in  common."^ 

'  Idem  est  ergo  presbyter,  qui  episcopus,  et  antequam  Diaboli  instinctu  studia  in 
religione  fierent,  et  diceretur  in  populis :  Ego  sum  Pauli,  ego  Apollo,  ego  autem 
Cephne,  commiini  presbyterorum  cousilio  ecclesiiE  gubernabantiir.  Postquam  vero 
unusquisque  eos  quos  baptizaverat,  suos  putabat  esse,  nou  Christi,  in  toto  orbe  decre- 
tum  est,  ut  uuus  de  presbyteris  electus  superponeretur  cseteris,  ad  quern  omnia 
ecclesiiE  cura  pertineret,  et  schismatum  semina  tollerentur.  Putat  aliquis  non  scrip- 
turarum  sed  nostram  esse  sententiam,  episcopum  et  presbyterum  unum  esse,  et  aliud 
tetatis,  aliud  esse  nomen  officii,  relegat  Apostoli  ad  Phillippenses  verba  dicentis  :  Pau- 
lus  et  Timotlieus  servi  Jesu  Christi,  omnibus  Sanctis  in  Christo  Jesu,  qui  sunt  Phil- 
lippis  cum  episcopis  et  diaconis,  gratia  vobis  et  pax  et  reliqua.  Phillippi  una  est  urbs 
Macedoniae,  et  certe  in  una  civitate  plures,  ut  nuncupantur,  episcopi  esse  non 
poterant.  Sed  quia  eosdem  episcopos  illo  tempore  quos  et  presbyteros  appellabant, 
propterea  indifferentur  de  episcopis  quasi  de  presbyteris  est  locutus.  Adhuc  hoc  al- 
icui  videatur  ambiguum,  nisi  altero  testimonio  comprobetur.  In  Actibus  apostolorum 
Bcriptum  est,  quod  cum  venisset  apostolus  Miletum,  emiserit  Ephesum  et  vocaverit 
presbyteros  ecclesise  ejusdem,  quibus  postea  inter  csetera  sit  locutus :  Attendite  vo- 
bis, et  omni  gregi,  in  quo  vos  Spiritus  Sanctus  posuit  episcopos,  pascere  ecclesiam 
Domini,  quam  acquisivit  persanguinem  euum.  Et  hie  diligentius  observate,  quon)odo 
unius  civitatis  Ephesi  presbyteros  vocans,  postea  eosdem  episcopos  dixerit. — Hajc 
propterea  ut  ostenderemus  apud  veteres  eosdem  fuisse  presbyteros  quos  et  epis- 
copos ;  paulatim  vero  ut  dissensionum  plantaria  evellerentur,  ad  unum  omnem  so- 
liciludinem  esse  delatam.  Sicut  ergo  prcsbyteri  sciunt  se  ex  ecclesioe  consuetu- 
dine  ci  qui  sibi  prcepositus  fuerit  esse  subjectos,  ita  episcopi  noverint  se  magis  con- 
Buetudine  quam  dispositiouis  dominica;  veritate  presbyteris  esse  majores,  et  in 
commune  debcre  ecclesiam  regere. — Comment,  in  Epist.  ad  Titnm  cap.  I. 


THE    SECOND    SEAL.  79 

Other  passages  might  be  added  from  Jerome,  Chrysoslom,  and 
Theodoret,  indicating  the  identity  of  the  primitive  bishops  and 
presbyters,  and  asserting  or  implying  that  the  institution  of  dio- 
cesans was  the  work  of  a  later  age. 

The  order  thus  had  its  origin  as  the  symbol  indicates,  in  a  dis- 
position of  the  ministers  of  the  church  to  make  their  office  the  in- 
strument of  ambition,  and  appropriate  the  flock  of  Christ  to  them- 
selves. Instead  however  of  restraining,  it  gralified  and  inflamed 
in  a  tenfold  degree  the  passions  it  was  designed  to  check,  and 
led  soon  not  only  to  the  usurpation  of  powers  that  belong  prop- 
erly to  presbyters,  but  to  the  assumption  of  the  prerogatives  of 
God.  Thus  in  place  of  acting  as  the  representatives  and  agents 
of  the  presbyters,  which  was  originally  their  office,  they  soon  ar- 
rogated an  absolute  jurisdiction  over  them,  and  assumed  the  sole 
right  of  ruling  and  of  ordaining  to  sacred  offices. 

But  by  far  the  most  momentous  of  then- usurpations,  was  their 
assumption  of  power  to  legislate  over  the  church,  and  thence 
over  the  will  and  rights  of  God.  This  usurpation  was  involved 
in  their  arrogation  of  authority  to  define  or  determine  what  the 
doctrines  are  of  the  Scriptures,  to  institute  rites  of  worship,  and 
to  enforce  their  legislative  acts  as  obligatory  on  the  church.  They 
therein  treated  the  rights  and  laws  of  God  as  subject  to  their  will, 
as  wholly  without  validity  when  not  in  accordance  with  their 
enactments,  and  as  indebted  therefore  for  whatever  authority  they 
possessed,  to  their  concurrence  and  sanction.  No  arrogation 
could  indeed  be  more  unauthorized  and  impious.  Tlie  proper 
sphere  of  human  rulers  is  the  relations  of  men  to  one  another,  not 
their  relations  to  God.  When  they  extend  their  laws  over  their 
relations  to  him,  they  in  fact  legislate  over  his  rights  and  him,  as 
truly  as  over  their  fellow  men.  But  no  assumption  can  be  more 
solecistical  than  that  a  subject  has  the  right  to  legislate  over  the 
laws  of  his  legitimate  and  supreme  ruler,  and  enlarge,  diminish, 
modify,  contradict  or  rescind  them  as  he  may  think  proper.  It  is 
to  assume  not  only  that  he  is  equal,  but  superior  to  his  lawgiver. 
Yet  such  was  their  arrogation.  Otherwise  their  dictation  could 
have  been  nothing  but  advice  or  the  expression  of  opinion,  and 
could  have  had  no  influence  on  the  duty  of  the  church  to  regard 
God  as  the  only  religious  lawgiver,  and  receive  his  will  as  of  it- 
self and  alone  supremely  obligatory.  They  accordingly  imposed 
their  definitions  and  canons  on  the  church,  as  of  absolute  author- 
ity. "  Let  all  who  dare  to  disannul  the  decree  of  the  great  and 
holy  synod  assembled  at  Nicaea  in  the  presence  of  the  emperor 
Constantine  respecting  the  feast  of  the  passover,  be  debarred 


80  THE    SECOND    SEiVL. 

from  communion  and  excommunicated  from  the  church  !"*  They 
treated  a  dissent  from  them  as  of  the  same  guilt,  as  the  rejection 
or  violation  of  the  known  will  of  God.  "The  violators  of  the  canons 
are  severely  sentenced  by  the  pious  fathers,  and  condemned  by 
the  Holy  Spirit  by  whose  inspiration  and  gift  they  were  dictated  ; 
for  they  who  not  of  necessity  but  spontaneously  transgress  or  im- 
peach them,  or  concur  with  their  violators,  are  not  improperly 
regarded  as  blaspheming  the  Holy  Spirit,'"^  "  Like  the  four  vol- 
umes of  the  holy  gospel,  I  receive  and  venerate  the  four  coun- 
cils, the  Nicene  in  which  the  dogma  of  Arius  was  overthrown, 
the  Constanlinopolitan  in  which  the  error  of  Eunomius  and  Ma- 
cedonius  was  censured,  the  first  Ephesian  in  which  the  impiety 
of  Nestorius  was  condemned,  and  that  of  Chalcedon  which  de- 
nounced the  depravity  of  Eutyches."^  "I  receive  the  six  holy  gen- 
eral councils  and  their  godlike  dogmas  and  doctrines  as  delivered 
to  us  by  divine  inspiration."'*  They  denied  or  abrogated  all  the 
great  moral  laws  which  he  has  imposed,  and  important  doctrines 
of  his  wcrd,  substituted  other  doctrines  and  laws  in  their  place, 
and  introduced  innumerable  other  beings,  real  or  imaginary,  and 
material  forms  as  objects  of  worship.  The  second  council  of 
Nicaea  sanctioned  the  invocation  of  saints  and  the  worship  of  im- 
ages. Thus  Tarasius  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople  whose 
creed  was  approved  by  the  synod.  "I  invoke  the  intercessions 
of  the  most  holy  and  spotless  queen  mother  of  God,  and  ever 
virgin  Mary,  of  the  holy  angels  also,  and  most  holy  apostles, 
prophets,  martyrs,  confessors  and  teachers,  and  salute  their  ven- 
erable images."^     Theodore  of  Jerusalem  also  :   "  We  receive 

'  Synodi  Antioch.  Cam.  I.     Labbei  Concil.  torn.  ii.  p.  1307. 

*  Violatores  voluntarii  canonum  graviter  a  Sanctis  patribus  judicaiitur  et  a  Spiritu 
Sancto  ciijus  instinctu  ac  douo  dictati  sunt,  dainnantur  ;  quoniam  blasphemare 
Spiritum  Sanctum  nou  incongrue  videntur  qui  contra  eosdem  sanctos  canones,  non 
necessitate  compulsi,  ut  prtefixum  est,  aliquid  aut  proterve  agunt,  aut  loqui  prsBsu- 
mnnt,  aut  facere  volentibus  sponti  consentiunt. — Labbei  Con.  torn.  iii.  p.  423.  Gra- 
tiani  Decret,  Causa  xxv.  9,  i.  c.  v. 

^  Sicut  sancti  evangelii  quatuor  libros,  sic  quatuor  concilia  suscipere  et  venerare 
me  fateor,  Niccenum  scilicet  in  quo  porversum  Arii  dogma  destruitur  ;  Consfantino- 
})olitanum  quoque  in  quo  Eunomii  et  Macedonii  error  convincitur  ;  Ephesinum  eti- 
am  primnm  in  quo  Nestorii  impietas  judicatur ;  Ciialcedonense  vero  in  quoEutychis 
et  Dioscorique  pravitas  reprobatur. — Gratiani  Decret.  Dist.  xv.  c.  2. 

*  Labbei  Concil.  tom.  xii.  p.  1124.  The  creed  also  of  Theodore  patriarch  of  Jeru- 
salem which,  like  the  profession  of  Tarasius  from  which  the  preceding  extract  is  ta- 
ken, was  ratified  by  the  synod.  "  The  six  holy  general  councils  which  were  assem- 
bled through  the  Holy  Spirit  in  opposition  to  every  heresy  of  whatever  place  or  time, 
we  also  receive  and  confirm,  in  proclaiming  which  the  churches  of  the  orthodo.x; 
throughout  the  world  are  established  in  their  accurate  and  inspired  dogmas,  recei- 
ving what  they  received,  and  rejecting  what  they  rejected." — p.  1138, 1139. 

'  Labbei  Concil.  tom.  xii.  p.  1123. 


THE    SECOND    SEAL.  81 

and  embrace  the  apostolical  traditions  of  the  church  by  which  we 
are  taught  to  salute,  honor  and  worship  the  saints,  venerating  them 
as  the  servants,  friends  and  children  of  God."'  So  likewise  the 
fourth  Lateran  council  and  the  council  of  Trent.  "  The  holy 
synod  commands  all  bishops  and  others  sustaining  the  office  of 
teachers,  that  according  to  the  usage  of  the  Catholic  and  apos- 
tolic church  from  the  earliest  ages  of  the  Christian  religion,  the 
consent  of  the  holy  fathers  and  decrees  of  sacred  councils,  they 
instruct  the  faithful  in  respect  to  the  intercession  and  invocation 
of  the  saints,  the  honor  of  relics,  and  the  legitimate  use  of  ima- 
ges ;  teaching  them  that  the  saints  reigning  with  Christ  offer  their 
prayers  for  men  to  God  ;  that  it  is  proper  and  useful  suppliantly 
to  invoke  them,  and  to  have  recourse  to  their  prayers  for  aid,  in 
order  to  the  benefits  which  are  to  be  obtained  from  God  through 
his  son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  who  is  our  only  Redeemer  and 
Saviour ;  and  that  they  entertain  an  impious  sentiment  who  de- 
ny that  they  are  to  be  invoked,  or  assert  that  they  do  not  pray  for 
men,  or  that  to  ask  their  prayers  for  us  as  individuals  is  idolatry, 
or  contrary  to  tiie  word  of  God,  adverse  to  the  honor  of  Jesus 
Christ  the  only  mediator  between  God  and  men,  or  foolish.  Also 
that  the  sacred  bodies  of  the  holy  martyrs  and  others  living 
with  Christ,  which  were  his  living  members  and  the  temple  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  are  to  be  raised  by  him  to  eternal  life  and 
glory,  are  to  be  venerated  by  the  faithful,  manybenefits  being  there- 
by procured  from  God  :  and  that  they  are  altogether  to  be  con- 
demned who  affirm  that  homage  and  honor  are  not  due  to  their 
relics,  that  no  benefit  arises  from  honoring  them  or  other  sacred 
monuments,  or  that  it  is  vain  to  celebrate  their  memory  in  order 
to  obtain  their  aid  ;  as  the  church  has  heretofore  condemned  and 
now  denounces  them  again.  That  images  moreover  of  Christ, 
of  the  virgin  mother  of  God,  and  of  other  saints,  are  to  be  kept 
and  continued  in  temples  especially,  and  due  honor  and  homage 
paid  to  them  ;  not  that  it  should  be  believed  there  is  any  divinity 
or  virtue  in  them  for  which  they  should  be  worshipped,  or  that 
any  thing  is  to  be  sought  from  them,  or  that  trust  is  to  be  placed 
in  them,  as  was  formerly  done  by  the  pagans  who  put  their  hope 
in  idols  ;  but  because  the  honor  shown  them  is  referred  to  the  pro- 
totypes which  they  represent,  so  that  we  adore  Christ  through 
the  images  which  we  kiss  and  before  which  we  uncover  the  head 
and  kneel,  and  pay  homage  to  the  saints  whose  similitude  they 
bear."  They  denied  that  the  Scriptures  are  the  only  legitimate 
rule  of  faith  and  worship,  exalted  the  canons  of  councils,  the  opin- 

*  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xii.  p.  1143.  "  Concil.  Trident,  Sess.  xxv. 

11 


82  THE    SECOND    SEAL. 

ions  of  the  fathers,  and  the  decrees  of  the  pope  to  an  equal  author- 
ity, and  licensed  the  violation  of  all  the  laws  of  God  and  man  by 
the  authorization  of  indulgences.  **  Moreover  the  holy  synod  in 
order  to  restrain  presumptuous  dispositions,  decrees  that  no  one 
relying  on  his  ow^n  vi^isdom,  shall  presume  in  matters  of  faith 
and  customs  that  pertain  to  the  support  of  Christian  doctrine,  to 
distort  the  sacred  Scriptures  to  his  own  opinion,  or  interpret  them 
contrary  to  that  sense  which  the  holy  mother  church  has  held 
and  holds,  whose  it  is  to  judge  in  respect  to  the  true  import  and 
exposition  of  the  sacred  word,  or  contrary  to  the  unanimous  con- 
sent of  the  fathers,  even  although  interpretations  of  that  kind 
should  never  be  made  public.  Let  whoever  does  otherwise  be 
reported  by  the  usual  officers  and  punished  according  to  the 
laws."'  "Since  the  power  of  conferring  indulgences^  has  been  con- 
ceded by  Christ  to  the  church,  and  she  has  exercised  it  from  the 
earliest  ages,  the  holy  synod  teaches  and  enjoins  that  the  use  of 
them,  highly  salutary  to  the  Christian  people,  and  sanctioned  by 
the  holy  councils,  is  to  be  continued  in  the  church,  and  pronounces 
an  anathema  on  those  who  either  assert  that  they  are  useless,  or 
deny  that  the  church  has  power  to  confer  them."^  All  the  other 
false  doctrines  and  superstitious  and  impious  rites  of  the  ancient 
and  modem  Asiatic  Greek  and  Latin  churches,  have  in  like  man- 
ner been  legalized  and  enforced  by  canons  of  synods  or  decrees 
of  patriarchs  and  popes,  and  a  boundless  demonstration  furnished 
that  the  right  of  legislation  which  they  have  thus  assumed,  in- 
volves in  practice  as  well  as  principle,  an  arrogation  of  absolute 
authority  over  the  laws  and  prerogatives  of  God. 

In  the  exercise  of  the  stupendous  powers  thus  usurped,  they 
took  peace  from  the  earth  by  animosities,  rivalries,  contests,  and 
endeavors  to  conquer  and  destroy  each  other  officially ;  by  tyranny 
over  their  inferiors,  the  persecution  of  those  who  refused  submis- 
sion to  their  dictation,  encroachment  on  the  civil  powers,  and 
quarrels  with  monarchs  and  princes,  analogous  to  the  revolts, 
strifes,  battles  and  slaughters  in  the  empire,  of  which  in  the  second 
and  third  century  political  and  military  usurpers  were  the  auli^ors. 

The  spirit  with  which  they  ruled  their  dioceses  within  a  short 
period  of  their  institution  of  the  office,  is  indicated  by  Cyprian  in 
his  letter  to  Cornelius,  in  which  he  represents  all  the  heresies 
and  schisms  that  had  arisen,  as  having  sprung  from  a  refusal  to 

'  Concil.  Trident,  Sess.  iv. 

'  An  indulgence  is  a  release  from  obligation  to  law,  and  is  either  a  licen«#  to  sin 
•with  impunity,  or  an  exemption  from  liability  lor  sins  already  committed. 
*  Concil.  Trident,  de  Indul.  Sess.  xxv. 


THE   SECOND  SEAL.  83 

acknowledge  the  bishop  alone  as  a  priest  and  judge  in  the  church 
in  the  place  of  Christ ;  which,  however  extravagant,  reveals  the 
feeling  which  he  exhibits  in  many  of  his  letters,  and  which  be- 
came common  to  his  order,  that  every  disobedience  to  the  will 
of  the  bishop  and  every  exercise  of  the  sacred  office  without  his 
permission,  was  a  violation  of  his  rights,  rebellion  against  God, 
and  a  just  ground  of  the  deprivation  of  office  and  excommunica- 
tion with  which  they  then  began  to  visit  those  who  dissented 
from  their  doctrines,  or  refused  subjection  to  their  authority.^ 
That  love  of  power,  pride,  discord,  strife,  and  tyranny,  soon  be- 
came their  characteristics,  is  shown  by  Eusebius,  who  represents 
their  ambition,  abuse  of  their  authority  by  the  introduction  of 
unworthy  persons  into  the  sacred  office,  and  contentiousness  in 
the  period  immediately  preceding  the  persecution  by  Diocle- 
tian, as  too  discreditable  to  the  church  to  be  recorded.^  Sozo- 
men  exhibits  them  as  accustomed  immediately  on  being  freed 
from  persecution  by  the  civil  powers,  to  engage  in  disputes  and 
contentions  with  one  another.^  Alexander  of  Alexandria,  repre- 
sents ambition  and  avarice  as  perpetually  exciting  bad  men  to 
intrigue  for  the  great  churches.'*  Chrysostom  presents  a  fright- 
ful picture  of  the  influence  of  the  office  from  the  passions  to 
which  it  gives  birth.  He  exhibits  the  mind  of  the  priest  as 
ruffled  by  waves  more  violent  than  those  which  tempestuous 
winds  excite  on  the  sea  ;  that  the  first  dangers  which  he  is  called 
to  encounter  are  those  of  vain-glory,  more  fatal  than  the  rock  of 
the  syrens ;  that  to  be  installed  in  the  office  is  like  being  exposed 
to  perpetual  laceration  by  those  monsters  ;  and  that  the  ambition, 
anger,  strife,  envy,  jealousy,  and  detraction  that  attend  it,  are  so 
many  furies  that  rend  and  devour  the  soul.^ 

That  their  ambition  soon  led  to  collision  and  excited  distrac- 
tions in  the  church,  is  indicated  by  the  canons  of  councils  and 
forged  documents  which  were  employed  to  restrain  their  usur- 
pation of  each  other's  prerogatives,  and  encroachment  on  one 
another's  jurisdiction.    "  Let  not  a  bishop  presume  to  make  an 

'  Neque  enim  aliunde  haereses  obortae  sunt,  aut  nata  sunt  schismata,  quam  inde, 
quod  sacerdoti  Dei  non  obtemperatur,  nee  unus  in  ecclesia  ad  tompus  sacerdos  et 
ad  tempus  judex  vice  Christi  cogitatur:  cui  si  secundum  magisteria  divina  obtem- 
peraret  fraternitas  universa,  memo  adversum  sacerdotum  collegium  quidquani  mo- 
veret,  nemo  post  divinum  judicium,  postpopuli  sufFragium,  post  coepiscoporum  con- 
sensum,  judieem  se,  jam  non  episcopi,  sed  Dei  faceret,  nemo  discidio  unitatis  Christi 
ecclesiam  scinderet. — Epist.  59.     See  also  Epist.  66. 

"  Euseb.  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  viii.  c.  1,  2.     De  Martyribus,  c.  12. 

'  Sozomeni  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  vi.  c.  4. 

*  Theodoriti  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  4. 

*  De  Sacerdot.  lib.  iii.  c.  9. 


84  THE  SECOND  SEAL. 

ordination  in  cities  or  rural  places  not  subject  to  him.  Should 
he  be  convicted  of  having  done  it  without  the  approbation  of 
those  who  hold  those  cities  or  villages,  let  him  be  deposed,  and 
those  also  whom  he  has  ordained."^  "  Let  no  bishop  presume 
to  pass  from  one  province  into  another  and  ordain  any  to  the 
sacred  office,  unless  by  a  written  invitation  from  the  metropolitan 
and  subordinate  bishops  of  the  province  which  he  enters.  Should 
he  without  a  call  proceed  to  ordain  persons  and  administer  eccle- 
siastical affairs  that  do  not  belong  to  him,  his  acts  are  without 
authority,  and  as  a  fit  punishment  for  his  disorderly  and  presump- 
tuous attempt,  he  is  deposed  by  this  holy  synod. "^  A  large  part 
of  the  acts  of  the  first  councils  of  which  we  have  any  memorials, 
and  the  forged  canons,  constitutions,  and  decretals  ascribed  to  the 
apostles,  and  the  bishops  of  Rome  of  the  second,  third,  and  fourth 
centuries,  are  in  like  manner  designed  to  repress  their  lawless 
ambition  of  power  and  disposition  to  encroach  on  each  other's 
prerogatives.  The  usurping  spirit  which  thus  characterized  the 
order,  accordingly  either  gave  birth  to  most  of  the  dissensions, 
disgraceful  strifes,  and  bloody  quarrels  which  agitated  and  wasted 
the  church  through  a  long  succession  of  ages,  or  raised  the  dif- 
ferences in  faith  and  practice  that  sprung  from  other  causes  into 
a  factitious  importance,  and  made  them  the  occasions  of  violent 
discord,  exacerbated  animosities,  and  the  deposition  and  ejection  of 
one  another  from  the  churches.  It  was  thus  the  imperious  and 
domineering  spirit  of  Victor,  bishop  of  Rome,  that  near  the  close 
"of  the  second  century  rendered  the  differences  of  the  east  and 
west  in  respect  to  the  day  on  which  Easter  was  to  be  observed, 
the  occasion  of  the  passionate  contests,  enmities,  and  excommuni- 
cations of  eacii  other  witii  which  the  church  was  distracted  and 
disgraced  on  that  subject.  His  attempt  to  compel  the  churches 
of  the  east  to  conform  to  the  west,  was  pronounced  by  the  great 
body  of  the  bishops  of  the  age  an  unauthorized  arrogation  of 
power ;  and  his  debarring  them,  on  their  refusing  obedience  to  his 
mandate,  from  communion  with  those  of  his  patriarchate,  rebuked 
as  a  wanton  violation  of  the  peace  of  the  church.^ 

The  violent  contests  with  which  the  churches,  first  of  Africa, 
and  at  length  of  Europe  and  Asia,  were  for  generations  agitated 
in  respect  to  the  rebaptism  of  those  who  were  received  from  dis- 
senting sects,  were  occasioned  in  a  chief  degree  by  the  claims 
of  the  bishops  to  legislative  power  over  the  church,  and  endeavor 

*  Canon  Apost.  can.  xxxiv.  Labbei,  torn.  i.  p.  35. 

*  Concil.  Antioch  i.  can.  xiii.  Labbei,  torn.  ii.  p.  1314. 
»  Euseb.  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  v.  c.  24. 


THE  SECOND  SEAL.  85 

to  enforce  their  will  as  of  divine  authority.  Those  of  each  party 
denounced  and  excommunicated  their  opponents  as  heretics,  and 
endeavored  to  induce  the  church  at  large  to  unite  in  debarring 
them  from  fellowship.  How  violent  the  passions  and  language 
of  Cyprian  sometimes  were,  though  more  moderate  than  many, 
may  be  seen  from  passages  like  the  following.  He  says  of  those 
who  rejected  the  doctrine  he  maintained  respecting  the  power  of 
bishops,  the  unity  of  the  church,  and  baptism :  "  Is  God  hon- 
ored by  the  friend  of  heretics  and  enemy  of  Christians,  who  thinks 
the  priests  of  God  who  keep  the  truth  of  Christ  and  the  unity  of 
the  church,  are  to  be  debarred  from  communion  ?  If  that  is 
honoring  him,  if  his  fear  and  discipline  are  in  that  manner  main- 
tained by  his  worshippers  and  priests,  let  us  throw  down  our 
arms,  let  us  yield  our  hands  to  be  bound,  let  us  deliver  to  the 
devil  the  institution  of  the  gospel,  the  appointment  of  Christ,  the 
majesty  of  God ;  let  the  oaths  of  fidelity  in  the  sacred  warfare 
be  abrogated,  let  the  standards  of  the  heavenly  camp  be  surren- 
dered, let  the  church  succumb  and  yield  to  heretics,  light  to 
darkness,  truth  to  perfidy,  hope  to  despair,  immortality  to  death, 
Christ  to  anti-christ."^ 

It  was  ambition  of  the  episcopal  chair  at  Rome,  that  gave 
birth  about  the  middle  of  the  third  century  to  the  contest  between 
Novatian  and  Cornelius,  which  led  to  the  ordination  of  Novatian 
as  an  anti-pope,  the  formation  of  the  party  which  bore  his  name, 
and  thence  to  strifes  and  violences  which  tore  and  disgraced  the 
churches  of  Italy,  Africa,  and  Asia,  in  a  measure,  for  many  cen- 
turies.^ 

The  adherents  of  Novatian  soon  becoming  numerous,  and  or- 
ganized under  their  own  bishops,  the  contest  between  them  and 
their  antagonists  degenerated  in  a  large  degree  into  a  mere  struggle 
for  power,  in  the  progress  of  which  they  not  only  excommunicated 
each  other  as  heretics,  but  excited  the  civil  magistrates  to  enforce 
their  anathemas  by  proscription,  confiscation,  and  banishment.^ 

The  still  more  unhappy  schism  of  the  Donatists  was  originated 
likewise  by  the  bishops,  and  owed  to  their  ambition,  arrogance, 
and  obstinacy  the  immeasurable  evils  which  it  drew  in  its  train. 
The  bishop  of  Carthage  dying  in  the  year  311,  at  the  instigation 

'  Epist.  74,  c.  8. 

*  Euseb.  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  vi.  c.  43.  Socratis  E.  H.  lib.  ii.  c.  .38,  lib.  iv.  c.  9,  lib. 
vii.  c.  9,  11.     Sozomeni  E.H.  lib.  ii.  c.  32.     Cypriani  Epist.  50,  60. 

*  At  the  distance  of  eighty  years  from  the  schism,  Constantiiie  granted  them 
toleration  and  legalized  their  possession  of  the  churches,  cemeteries  and  other  pro- 
perty which  they  had  acquired  during  their  separation.  Codicis  Theodos.  lib.  ,\vi. 
Tit.  V.  1.  2. 


86  THE   SECOND  SEAL. 

of  two  presbyters  who  aspired  to  the  office,  an  election  and  insti- 
tution of  a  successor  was  held  by  the  bishops  of  the  vicinity, 
before  the  arrival  of  those  summoned  from  Numidia,  Avho  had 
been  accustomed  to  take  part  in  the  election  and  ordination.  On 
their  arrival,  who  were  seventy  in  number,  they,  and  especially 
their  primate,  complained  of  the  violation  of  their  rights  in  the 
induction  of  a  bishop  without  their  concurrence,  and  encouraged 
by  a  faction  organized  by  the  disappointed  candidates  and  other 
enemies  of  Caecilianus  the  new  bishop,  summoned  him  before 
them,  and  on  his  disregarding  their  call,  deposed  him  and  elected 
and  ordained  another  in  his  place.  Hinc  schismatis  ac  dissen- 
sionis  initium  ;  sic  altare  contra  altare  erectum  est :  such  was 
the  origin  of  the  schism.  They  then  addressed  letters  to  all  the 
churches  of  Africa,  in  which  to  justify  themselves,  they  accused 
the  bishop  who  ordained  Caecilianus  of  having  surrendered  tlie 
Scriptures  to  the  heathen  magistrates, — an  offence  of  which  their 
primate  and  several  of  the  others  had  been  guilty, — and  become 
incapable  thereby  of  inducting  into  the  sacred  office,  pronounced 
his  ordination  invalid,  and  enjoined  them  to  exclude  him  from 
their  communion,  and  acknowledge  Majorinus,  whom  they  had 
ordained  his  rival,  as  the  only  legitimate  bishop. 

Those  representations  from  so  numerous  a  council  command- 
ing the  belief  of  great  numbers,  the  whole  African  church  be- 
came divided  into  two  parties,  and  a  violent  contest  arose  between 
the  antagonist  primates  to  secure  the  acquiescence  of  their  subor- 
dinates, maintain  their  authority,  and  gain  possession  of  the 
church  edifices  and  property,  in  which  all  the  arts  of  fraud,  de- 
traction, and  demagoguisn)  were  employed,  especially  by  the 
Donatist  faction,  on  a  boundless  scale,  and  violences,  robberies, 
assassinations,  and  slaughters  perpetrated,  that  are  scarcely  equal- 
led in  the  history  of  any  other  people.  Several  councils  were 
called  by  Constantine  for  the  purpose  of  hearing  their  accusa- 
tions of  Caecilianus,  and  remedying  their  difficulties,  and  several 
synods  held  by  the  Catholic  bishops  of  Africa  to  effect  a  recon- 
ciliation, but  without  success.  The  bishops  on  either  side,  but 
especially  the  Donatists,  exacerbated  by  intolerance,  inflamed 
with  ambition,  and  embittered  by  mutual  injuries,  strove  ralher 
to  perpetuate  than  terminate  the  strife.  The  Donatist  bishops 
not  unfrequently  headed  the  bloody  bands  of  the  Circumcellions 
in  the  robbery  and  abuse  of  the  helpless,  the  destruction  of 
churches,  the  promiscuous  slaughter  of  families  and  communi- 
ties, and  the  conflagration  of  villages  and  cities  ;*  and  continued 

'  S.  Optati,  De  Schis.  Doimt.  lib.  i.     Augiistiiii  Opcr.  torn.  ix.  p.  oi)4. 


THE  SECOND  SEAL.  87 

the  war  of  revenge  and  blood,  till  in  the  eighth  century  both  par- 
ties were  swept  from  existence  by  the  sword  of  the  Saracens.* 
The  principal  dissensions  and  schisms  of  the  Donatists  them- 
selves originated  in  like  manner  with  the  bishops,  and  that  espe- 
cially between  the  Primianists  and  Maximianists,  which  com- 
mencing in  an  uncanonical  deposition  of  Maximian  and  others  by 
Primian,  led  to  the  deposition  of  Primian  by  one  synod,  and  the 
substitution  of  Maximian  in  his  place,  and  the  condemnation  of 
Maximian  and  those  who  ordained  him  by  another,  and  thence  to 
a  strife  between  the  rivals,  which  was  marked  like  the  contest 
of  the  party  with  the  Catholics,  by  infuriate  passions  and  bloody 
tumults.^ 

The  schism  of  the  Melilians,  in  the  year  306,  had  its  origin 
in  like  manner  in  a  deposition  of  Melitius,  the  bishop  of  Lyco- 
polis,  in  upper  Egypt,  by  the  bishop  of  Alexandria.  The  party 
of  Melitius  soon  becoming  powerful,  a  violent  war  of  denunci- 
ation was  continued  for  several  years,  and  the  church  throughout 
Egypt,  and  the  neighboring  provinces,  in  a  degree  embroiled  in 
tlie  contest.^ 

The  dissensions  respecting  the  divine  nature  commenced  not 
long  after  by  Arius,  whether  they  had  their  origin,  as  the  bishop 
of  Alexandria  represented,  in  the  disappointment  of  his  ambition 
of  that  see,^  or  in  a  conviction  of  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  which 
he  advanced,  soon  degenerated  into  a  strife  for  power  between 
the  bisliops  of  the  two  parlies,  and  a  war  of  prerogatives.  His 
deposition  and  denunciation  by  Alexander  of  Alexandria,  led  to 
the  organization  of  a  large  parly,  embracing  many  prelates  of 
great  talents  and  authority  in  the  eastern  provinces,  and  excited 
disputations  and  contests  throughout  the  whole  church,^  so  seri- 
ous, as  to  induce  the  emperor,  at  the  recommendation  of  the 
orthodox  bishops,  to  summon  the  council  of  Nicasa,  and  to  ratify 
the  creed  and  canons,  which  it  adopted  for  the  government  of 
the  church  in  its  new  organization  as  nationalized,  and  enforce 
them  on  Arius  and  his  adherents  by  the  penalties  of  deposition  and 
banishment.  The  usurpation  by  the  prince  of  authority  over  the 
faith  of  the  church,  being  thus  sanctioned  by  the  bishops,  and  the 
deprivation  at  his  will  of  its  ministers  justified  and  applauded, 
his  religious  opinions,  which  as  they  varied  changed  the  relations 

'  Gibbon's  Hist.  chap.  xxi.  and  xxxiii. 

'  Augustini  in  Psal.  xxxvi.  torn.  iv.  pp.  279,  280.     Contra  Crescon,  lib.  iv.  c.  4. 
'  Socrat.  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  i.  c.  6,  c.    9.     Sozom.  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  i.  c.  24.     Theo- 
doriti,  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  1.  c.  9. 

*  Theodoriti,  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  i.  c.  4.  »  Theod.  Hist.  Eccl,  lib.  i.  c.  6. 


88  THE   SECOND  SEAL. 

of  the  antagonist  parlies  from  authority  to  degradation,  or  from 
degradation  to  authority,  became  invested  with  the  utmost  im- 
portance, and  gave  birth  to  boundless  intrigues  and  cabals  to  sway 
him  to  the  faith  of  the  respective  parties,  in  order  to  secure  there- 
by the  honors  and  emoluments  of  power.  The  decrees  of  the  sy- 
nod accordingly,  his  edicts,  and  the  deposition  and  banishment 
of  the  Arian  prelates  who  refused  the  legalized  creed,  so  far  from 
terminating  the  contest,  only  excited  their  party  to  the  most  art- 
ful and  strenuous  endeavors  to  change  the  judgment  of  the  em- 
peror, and  lead  him  to  regard  them,  if  not  with  approval,  at  least 
with  commiseration  ;  and  among  those  expedients,  one  of  the  most 
efficient  was  the  false  imputation  of  infamous  crimes  to  their 
great  antagonist  the  patriarch  of  Alexandria,  and  at  a  later  period 
to  the  patriarchs  of  Constantinople,  Antioch,  and  Rome,  and  the 
prelates  of  other  principal  dioceses  ;  and  their  intrigues  were  so 
successful  as  to  lead  repeatedly  to  the  ejection  of  the  orthodox 
from  their  sees,  and  the  substitution  of  Arians  in  their  place,  and 
to  the  deposition  on  the  other  hand  and  banishment  of  the  Arians, 
and  reinstallment  of  their  antagonists.  The  emperors  Constan- 
tine,  Constantius,  Jovian,  Valentinian,  Valens,  Theodosius,  Hono- 
rius,  Arcadius,  and  a  long  line  of  princes  on  the  Greek  throne, 
became  in  a  great  degree  the  instruments  of  the  ambitious  and 
domineering  prelates.^  As  the  orthodox  when  in  the  majority 
had  persecuted  the  Arians,  so  the  latter  on  their  accession  to 
power  in  the  reigns  of  Constantius  and  Valens,  persecuted  their 
antagonists,  and  with  a  violence  and  mercilessness  that  had 
scarcely  been  equalled  by  the  pagans  ;^  and  were  themselves 
again,  on  the  elevation  of  Theodosius,  deposed,  banished,  and 
subjected  to  all  the  evils  of  a  relentless  persecution ."*     Antago- 


'  Hosii  Epist.  ad  Constant.    Labbei  Concil.,  torn.  iii.  p.  246. 

'  "  Macedouius  having  obtained  the  patriarclial  chair  of  Constantinople,  inflicted 
innumerable  evils  on  those  who  did  not  choose  to  adopt  his  sentiments,  and  on  No- 
vatians  as  well  as  Catholics.  Many  bishops  who  were  distinguished  for  piety,  were 
seized  and  put  to  the  torture,  because  they  refused  to  communicate  with  him,  and 
after  being  tortured,  were  compelled  by  him  to  partake  of  the  eucharist  by  violently 
forcing  the  elements  into  their  mouths.  Women  also  and  children  were  seized  and 
forced  to  receive  baptism.  If  any  refused  or  spoke  in  opposition  to  it,  scourgings 
immediately  followed,  and  after  scourgings,  chains,  imprisonment,  and  other  dread- 
ful severities,  among  which  was  the  eradication  of  the  breasts  by  the  saw,  the 
knife,  or  the  application  of  eggs  raised  to  a  burning  heat ; — a  species  of  torture  never 
used  by  the  pagans,  and  known  only  to  tliose  who  profes.sed  to  be  Christians."  Soc- 
ratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  c.  38.  His  attempt  to  force  the  Novatians  of  Paphlagonia 
to  adopt  his  creed,  led  to  a  battle  with  the  imjjerial  troops  whicii  he  employed,  and 
the  slaughter  of  great  numbers  on  both  sides.    Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  c.  38. 

'  Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  i.  1.  2. 


THE    SECOND    SEAL.  89 

nist  councils  alternately  denounced  anathemas  on  each  other  ;* 
aged  bishops  were  scourged^  into  an  assent,  against  their  princi- 
ples, to  the  legahzed  faith  f  unwelcome  prelates  inducted  into 
their  sees  and  aided  in  their  merciless  tyranny  by  military 
bands  ;*  and  the  populace  of  the  great  cities  excited  to  the  demo- 
lition of  churches,  the  resistance  of  the  magistrates,  insurrections, 
and  bloodshed  ;  and  thus  through  a  long  tract  of  years,  not  only 
all  freedom  of  opinion  and  security  of  office  withdrawn  from  the 
clergy,  but  all  liberty  of  thought  and  safety  of  person  taken  from 
the  church  at  large,^     The  bishops  of  the   several  sects  into 

'  Most  of  the  councils  which  defined  doctrines  and  imposed  creeds,  denounced 
anathemas  on  dissentients  from  their  faith 

"  Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  c.  31. 

'  Ubique  autem  scandala,  ubique  schismata,  ubique  perfidia  sunt  Hinc  illud  est 
ut  ad  professionem  subscribendse  fidei  aliqui  eorum,  qui  ante  aliud  scripserant  co- 
gereutur.    Hilarii  de  Synodis  c.  63.    Athanasii  Epist.  ad  Solitar.  op.  torn.  i.  p.  815. 

*  Macedonius  was  placed  on  the  episcopal  throne  at  Constantinople  by  the  prae- 
torian prefect  and  a  military  guard,  and  upwards  of  three  thousand  of  the  populace 
slain  in  the  tumult  which  it  occasioned.    Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  c.  16. 

Gregory  was  escorted  by  troops  to  Alexandria  and  installed  by  violence,  and  by 
his  outrages  provoked  the  populace  to  firo  the  church.  Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii. 
c.  11. 

George  the  Cappadocian  was  put  in  possession  of  the  see  of  Alexandria  by  a  mil- 
itary force,  and  employed  troops  and  the  mob  to  incarcerate  the  virgins,  chain  and 
guard  the  bishops,  break  open  and  plunder  the  houses  of  orphans  and  widows,  drive 
the  orthodox  from  the  cemeteries  in  which  they  had  assembled  for  worship,  lacerate 
the  faces  of  young  women  and  hold  them  to  a  fire  to  compel  them  to  profess  them- 
selves Arians,  and  scourge  men  to  death  with  palm  boughs  armed  with  sharp  points, 
and  prevent  their  friends  from  interring  their  bodies.  Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  c. 
28.    Athanasii  Epist.  ad  Solitar.  op.  tom.  i.  p.  815,  816. 

*  The  power  they  assumed  when  assembled  in  synods  and  conferred  on  metro- 
politans, exarchs  and  patriarchs,  of  depriving  one  another  of  office,  was  exercised  in 
tlie  most  arbitrary  and  remorseless  manner,  and  proved  wholly  destructive  of  peace 
and  security.  A  large  proportion  of  those  who  attained  the  episcopal  chair  during 
the  hundred  years  that  followed  the  nationalization  of  the  church,  were  divested  of 
their  authority  and  expelled  from  their  sees.  Athanasius  of  Alexandria  was  de- 
posed three  times  and  driven  into  exile.  Gregory  his  successor  was  soon  set  aside 
by  an  Arian  synod,  and  George  substituted  in  his  place,  who,  after  having  trans- 
ported fifteen  of  the  bishops  of  his  patriarchate  into  exile,  and  induced  more  than 
twice  that  number  to  elude  his  vengeance  by  flight,  was  himself  deposed  by  the 
synod  of  Seieucia,  and  finally  perished  by  assassination.  Peter,  who  was  elevated  to 
tiie  see  on  the  death  of  Athanasius,  was  soon  forced  to  resign  it  to  Ijucius,  and  Lu- 
cius, after  a  short  reign,  to  relinquish  it  again  to  Peter. 

Paul,  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  was  four  times  deposed,  and  finally  slain  ; 
his  successor  Macedonius  driven  from  his  see  twice,  Chrysostom  twice,  and  Eva- 
grius  and  Demophilus  once  each.  The  synod  of  Serdica  deposed  Theodore  of  Her- 
aclea.  Narcissus  of  Nerodia,  Stephen  of  Antioch,  George  of  Laodicea,  Menophantes 
of  Ephesus,  Ursacius  of  Singidunum,  Valens  of  Mursa,  and  Patrophilus  of  Scythop- 
Dlis  ;  while  the  eastern  bishops  who  refused  to  meet  with  that  synod  exconmiuni 
cated  Hosius  of  Corduba,  Julius  of  Rome,  and  several  others. 

The  synod  of  Seieucia  deposed  Acacius  of  Coisarea,  Uranius  of  Tyre,  Eudoxiua 

12 


90  THE    SECOND    SEAL. 

which  the  Arians  became  divided  in  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth 
centuries,  were  embroiled  in  similar  contests,  and  hurled  denun- 

of  Antioch,  Theodulus  of  Chseretapor,  Theodosius  of  Philadelphia,  Evagrius  of  My- 
ttleue,  Leontius  of  Tripoli,  Auxentius,  Caius,  and  several  others. 

At  dilFerent  periods  Eustathius  of  Antioch,  Marcellus  and  Basil  of  Ancyra,  Pho- 
tinus  of  Sirmium,  Liberius  of  Rome,  Elusius  of  Cyzicum,  Dracontius  of  Perg^amos, 
Nerona  of  Seleucia,  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  Eustathius  of  Sebaste,  Dyonisius  of  Milan, 
Hilary  of  Poictiers,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  Eusebius  of  Vercelli,  were  ejected  from  their 
statious,  besides  a  crowd  both  in  the  east  and  in  the  west,  whose  names  have  not 
come  down  to  us.  Valens  expelled  nearly  all  the  orthodox  in  the  churches  of  Asia 
Minor — Socratis,  H.  E.  lib.  iv.  c.  17  ;  Gratian  the  Eunomians  and  Photinians  in 
those  of  Europe — Socratis,  H.  E.  lib.  v.  c.  2  ;  and  Theodosius  all  in  both  eni[)ires 
who  were  not  of  the  Nicene  faith — Codicis.  Theod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  i.  c.  2.  Gregory 
Naziansen  and  Basil  of  Caesarea  appear  to  have  been  the  only  conspicuous  prelates 
of  their  period  who  were  not  ejected  from  their  sees.  Basil  was  long  threatened, 
and  escaped  at  first  by  a  favorable  impression  made  by  his  intrepidity  on  the  em- 
peror, and  finally  it  is  probable  by  death  ;  while  Gregory  evaded  deposition  by 
yielding  to  the  intrigues  which  were  employed  to  induce  him  to  resign. 

In  the  next  age,  the  war  of  deposition  was  resumed,  and  at  the  council  of  Ephe- 
sus,  Cyril  and  his  party  deposed  Nestorius  of  Constantinople,  and  separated  John 
of  Antioch  and  thirty-six  others  from  the  communion  of  the  church,  while  John  of 
Antioch  and  his  adherents  deposed  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  and  Memnon  of  Ephesus, 
excommunicated  the  bishops,  a  hundred  or  more  in  number,  who  supported  them, 
and  procured  the  banishment  of  a  great  number  of  the  party  of  Nestorius,  as  well 
as  of  Cyril ;  and  a  similar  strife  of  ambition  and  vengeance  was  continued  by  their 
successors  through  a  long  series  of  ages.  Though  many  of  those  prelates  were 
wholly  unworthy  of  their  stations,  yet  their  expulsion  was  not  usually  founded  on 
their  demerits,  but  was  the  work  of  party  spirit,  resentment,  and  an  ambition  of  con- 
spicuity  and  power.    Socratis  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  ii.  c.  42. 

The  ambition,  recklessness,  and  profligacy  ascribed  by  Basil  to  the  prelates  of  his 
age,  continued  to  disgrace  the  order  for  a  long  period.  "  The  aspiring  who  are  not 
restrained  by  the  fear  of  God,  intrude  into  the  highest  stations,  and  promotion  has 
become  the  reward  of  impiety,  so  that  lie  who  blasphemes  the  most  furiously  is 
regarded  as  the  best  qualified  to  be  the  bishop  of  the  people.  The  sanctity  that 
befits  the  priesthood  has  disappeared  ;  they  are  no  longer  pastors  who  feed  the  flock 
of  the  Lord  with  knowledge,  but  the  ambitious  and  profligate,  who  appropriate  to 
their  pleasures  what  should  be  distributed  to  the  poor.  The  canons  are  no  longer 
strictly  observed,  but  a  large  license  is  allowed  to  sin  ;  they  who  owe  their  advance- 
ment to  power,  to  the  passions  of  men,  naturally  repaying  the  favor  by  yielding  to 
their  indulgence.  The  law  is  not  enforced,  but  every  one  walks  accordnig  to  the 
desire  of  his  own  heart,  and  wickedness  has  become  excessive.  No  warnings  are 
given  to  the  people ;  they  who  are  in  authority  being  the  slaves  of  those  to  whom 
they  owe  their  promotion,  and  restrained  from  speaking  freely.  When  projecting 
war  with  one  another,  they  are  accustomed  to  veil  their  private  enmities  under  the 
pretence  that  they  are  contending  for  religion.  Some,  to  avoid  reprehension  for 
their  disgraceful  conduct,  endeavor  to  divert  the  people  from  the  notice  of  their  crimes 
by  embroiling  them  in  mutual  contentions,  and  the  fear  that  peace  would  lead  to 
tlicir  exposure,  will  induce  them  to  continue  the  war.  While  the  unbelieving  laugh 
at  these  things,  the  weak  are  shaken,  and  they  even  who  have  faith  are  made  to  doubt, 
for  they  not  only  are  not  furnished  with  any  solid  instruction,  but  are  cheated  ol 
their  knowledge  by  these  malignant  perverters  of  the  word.  In  the  mean  time,  the 
lips  of  tlie  pious  are  silenced,  while  every  blaspheming  tongue  is  at  liberty.  Sacred 
things  are  so  profaned  that  the  sound  part  of  the  people  avoid  the  houses  of  prayer, 
as  schools  of  impiety,  and  retreating  to  secluded  places,  lift  up  their  hands  to  God 
with  groans  and  tears.     But  the  news  must  have  reached  you  that  the  people  of 


THE    SECOND    SEAL.  91 

ciations  and  anathemas  at  each  other  with  an  equal  pride  and 
ferocity. 

The  organization  of  the  church  by  Constantine  as  a  national 
establishment,  and  investiture  of  the  patriarchs  of  tlie  capital  cities 
with  a  legal  jurisdiction  over  the  bishops  of  their  provinces,  ren- 
dered those  sees  the  objects  of  a  still  greater  ambition,  and  gave 
birth  to  new  and  more  rancorous  contests  between  the  great  pre- 
lates and  their  subordinates.  The  elections  of  the  bishops  of  the 
great  cities  were  frequently  disgraced  by  insurrections  and  blood- 
shed, and  the  patriarchs  of  Rome,  Constantinople,  Antioch,  Je- 
rusalem, and  Alexandria,  animated  by  a  restless  jealousy  of  each 
other,  and  ambition  of  encroaching  on  one  another's  dominion. 
It  was  this  insatiable  thirst  of  power  that  gave  birth  to  the  long 
contests  of  the  patriarchs  of  Rome  and  Constantinople,  and  led, 
after  the  most  exacerbated  reproaches,  accusations,  and  anathe- 
mas, to  the  separation  which  has  now  continued  near  a  thousand 
years.  On  the  other  hand,  the  confirmation  of  their  authority  by 
the  nationalization  of  the  church,  and  enforcement  of  their  canons 
and  decrees  by  civil  penalties,  enabled  the  bishops  by  the  im- 
position of  false  doctrines,  the  institution  of  superstitious  and 
idolatrous  rites,  and  the  exaction  of  immense  revenues  to  inflict 
new  inquietudes  on  the  church  at  large.  They  destroyed  the  peace 
of  myriads  and  millions  by  the  injunction  of  celibacy,  by  the  im- 
position of  cruel  penances,  by  compelling  a  participation  in  riles 
that  were  felt  to  be  idolatrous,  by  the  tyranny  of  the  confessional, 
by  levying  enormous  exactions  as  the  price  of  exemption  from 
the  penalties  of  violating  the  civil  and  canon  laws. 

Several  of  the  councils  themselves  instead  of  the  gravity,  can- 
dor, meekness,  and  piety,  which  become  assemblies  of  the  min- 
isters of  religion,  were  noisy,  factious,  and  intriguing  to  a  degree 
that  would  disgrace  the  lowest  political  cabal,  and  torn  with  in 
furiate  contentions  and  rivalries.' 

many  of  the  cities  have  gone  out  of  the  gates  with  their  wives  and  cliildren,  and 
the  aged  even,  and  worshipped  under  the  open  sky,  bearing  with  patience  all  the 
severities  of  the  weather,  and  looking  for  relief  from  God.  What  lamentations  can 
equal  such  calamities,  what  fountains  of  tears  sulfice  for  these  evils  I" 

"  But  it  is  a  still  more  unhappy  circumstance  that  they  who  seem  to  be  sound  in 
the  faith  are  divided  among  themselves,  and  difficulties  invest  us  like  those  in 
which  the  Jews,  when  besieged  by  Vespasian,  were  embroiled,  who  were  at  once 
pressed  by  the  war  without,  and  wasted  by  insurrection  within  ;  for  besides  the  con- 
tests witli  the  heretics,  another  is  waged  among  ourselves  that  has  reduced  the 
church  to  extreme  weakness."  Basilii  Epist.  CI),  op.  tom.  iii.  j)j).  1U.9,  110.  Sim- 
ilar representations  occur  in  his  61st  and  70th,  and  several  other  letters.  Febrouii 
de  Statu.  Eccl.  Proef. 

*  Gregory  Naziansen  represents  himself  as  resolved  never  to  attend  another 


92  THE  SECOND  SEAL. 

While  dissensions,  encroachment,  and  tyranny  were  thus  the 
characteristics  of  the  bishops  as  a  body  during  the  fourth,  fifth, 
sixth,  and  seventh  centuries,  the  vast  aggrandizement  of  the  pa- 
triarchs of  Rome  in  the  ages  that  followed,  and  acquiescence  of 
the  nations  in  their  claims  of  authority  over  the  whole  western 
church,  armed  them  with  a  tenfold  power  to  disquiet  it,  which 
they  exercised  with  a  proportional  restlessness  and  energy.  They 
took  away  the  peace  of  the  church  by  enforcing  the  law  of  ce- 
libacy on  the  clergy,  by  which  thousands  of  families  were  torn 
asunder  and  consigned  to  ignominy  and  wretchedness,  and  my- 
riads and  milUons  of  the  unmarried  harassed  with  perpetual 
temptation,  or  precipitated  into  hopeless  vice.  They  filled  the 
civil  empire  and  the  church  with  distractions,  rivalries,  and  war, 
by  arrogating  the  right  of  investiture  to  vacant  bishoprics,  assert- 
ing a  jurisdiction  over  the  prelates  of  other  kingdoms,  as  well  as 
the  patriarchate  of  Rome,  and  assuming  the  power  of  interdicting 
the  living  at  their  pleasure  from  the  rites  of  worship,  and  the  dead 
from  burial,  and  excommunicating  princes,  divesting  monarchs 
of  their  authority,  and  absolving  their  subjects  from  allegiance. 
There  has  scarce  been  a  pause  in  their  contests  with  the  cities, 
the  states,  and  the  princes  of  Italy,  from  the  gift  to  them  of  a 
civil  dominion  by  Pepin,  down  to  the  present  hour.  By  their 
quarrels  with  the  emperors  of  Germany,  the  nations  both  of  that 
kingdom  and  of  Italy  were  distracted  by  contentions,  rebellions, 
and  wars  for  several  generations,  and  the  factions  to  which  they 
gave  birth  continued  to  disorder  and  harass  the  Italians  through 
a  succession  of  centuries.  A  war  of  prerogatives  with  the  Gal- 
ilean church  and  monarchy,  excited  the  jealousy,  inflamed  the 
resentment,  and  provoked  the  resistance  of  the  prelates  and 
princes  of  that  people,  through  a  thousand  years.  Their  kings 
were  repeatedly  excommunicated  and  dethroned,  the  kingdom 
placed  under  interdict,  the  prelates  deprived  of  office  and  sum- 
moned to  Rome,  and  the  whole  population  harassed  by  threats 
and  smitten  by  anathemas. 

A  similar  war  of  usurpation  and  tyranny  was  waged  with  Spain 
and  the  British  isles.  Several  of  the  monarchs  of  England  were 
excommunicated  and  dethroned,  and  others  threatened  with  those 
inflictions,  the  kingdom  repeatedly  placed  under  interdict,  and 

assembly  of  bishops,  on  the  ground  tliat  he  had  never  known  a  synod  that  ended 
happily,  or  that  did  not  increeise  rather  than  diminish  the  evils  it  was  designed 
to  allay.  The  spirit  of  contentiousness  and  ambition  with  which  they  were  ani- 
mated, he  exhibits  as  transcending  description,  and  rendering  their  difficulties  mor« 
hopeless  of  a  remedy  than  those  of  any  other  class.     Epist.  55. 


THE  SECOND  SEAL.  93 

the  prelates  and  people  for  ages  oppressed  with  enormous  exac- 
tions. It  was  with  the  bishops  or  pope  that  all  the  religious  dis- 
sensions that  distracted  that  kingdom  during  its  submission  to 
the  sway  of  Rome  had  their  origin.  It  was  the  factious  bish- 
ops, aspiring  cardinals,  and  profligate  and  tyrannical  pontiffs,  who 
gave  birth  to  the  great  schism  of  the  papacy  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  and  all  the  boundless  distractions  with  which  the  church 
was  rent  during  that  feud. 

The  popes  and  subordinate  bishops  took  away  the  peace  of 
the  church  by  denying  all  liberty  of  dissent  and  freedom  of 
thought,  and  persecuting  the  witnesses  of  God,  who  from  age  to 
age  testified  against  their  idolatries,  and  rebuked  their  usurpa- 
tions ;  the  Paulicians,  the  Albigenses,  the  Wicklifites,  the  Lol- 
lards, the  Waldenses,  the  Bohemians,  prompting  the  civil  rulers 
to  the  ravage  of  their  fields,  the  conflagration  of  their  cities,  and 
the  promiscuous  slaughters  by  which  they  were  nearly  extermi- 
nated. Nor  was  this  war  on  the  peace  of  the  church  any  less 
their  characteristic  after  the  revival  of  learning  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  the  secession  of  the  Protestant  nations  from  their 
jurisdiction.  Those  blows  at  their  power  only  prompted  them 
to  new  arts  and  more  strenuous  endeavors  to  maintain  their 
usurped  authority,  and  hold  their  vassals  in  bondage.  They  re- 
newed their  intrigues  to  control  the  civil  governments,  rekindled 
the  fires  of  persecution,  and  redoubled  their  exertions  to  overawe 
the  timid  by  the  force  of  authority,  and  exterminate  those  who 
refused  submission  to  their  will  by  the  tortures  of  the  inquisition. 

And  such  for  a  long  period  was  the  character  in  a  large  degree 
of  the  prelates  of  England  after  their  secession  from  the  com- 
munion of  Rome.  They  arrogated  a  similar  right  to  legislate 
over  the  prerogatives  and  laws  of  God,  and  a  similar  autiiority 
over  the  liberties  and  consciences  of  his  worshippers,  and  acqui- 
esced in  their  assumption  by  the  civil  rulers  ;  they  were  animated 
by  an  equal  ambition,  and  guilty  of  equal  violations  of  the  rights 
and  peace  of  those  under  their  sway.  The  pride,  intolerance,  and 
tyranny  with  which  for  ages  they  pursued  and  crushed  the  dis- 
sentients from  their  creed  and  rites;  the  malignity  with  which 
they  sometimes  attempted  to  debase  the  ministers  of  tiieir  own 
communion  illustrious  for  learning,  piety,  and  usefulness,  and 
swerve  them  from  allegiance  to  the  Almighty ;  and  the  cruelty 
with  which  they  consigned  their  families  to  disgrace  and  beg- 
gary, and  strove  to  hunt  them  from  existence,  have  no  parallel  in 
the  history  of  any  other  Protestant  nation.  Large  as  the  num- 
ber is  of  great  and  good  men  who  have  held  the  episcopal  office 


94  THE  SECOND   SEAL. 

in  that  church,  vast  as  the  myriads  are  who  through  divine  grace 
have  washed  their  robes  under  their  ministry,  and  made  them 
white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  gone  up  from  the  conflicts 
of  this  stormy  scene  to  the  rest  of  heaven,  she  is  yet  among  the 
guiUiest  of  usurpers  and  tyrants.  Her  crown  is  sulhed,  her  stole 
is  purpled  with  the  blood  of  multitudes  of  the  witnesses  of  God 
whom  she  has  wantonly  slain,  and  thence,  like  her  persecuting 
sisters,  she  is  ere  long  to  be  struck  by  avenging  justice  from  her 
throne. 

Such  are  some  of  the  various  forms  in  which  these  usurpers 
of  the  rights  of  God  have  taken  peace  from  the  earth  ;  such  the 
vast  extent  to  which  they  have  filled  the  church  and  civil  empire 
with  disquiet  and  tumult.  To  delineate  at  large  the  disastrous 
agency  which  they  have  thus  exerted,  were  to  give  a  history  of 
nearly  all  the  religious  contentions,  and  a  principal  share  of  the 
civil  calamities  with  which  the  church  has  been  afflicted  for  six- 
teen hundred  years.  There  has  not  been  an  age  in  which  mil- 
lions have  not  been  harassed  by  them  with  disquietudes  and 
alarms,  and  subjected  to  innumerable  sufferings.  There  is  not 
a  dungeon  within  the  circuit  of  their  jurisdiction  that  has  not 
been  peopled  by  their  victims,  nor  an  ancient  city  which  they 
have  not  lighted  with  tlie  fires  of  persecution,  and  stained  with 
the  blood  of  the  martyrs  of  Jesus.  There  is  not  a  hamlet  that 
has  not  been  terrified  by  the  threats  of  their  remorseless  ven- 
geance, and  resounded  with  the  shrieks  of  the  young  and  the 
aged,  the  beautiful  and  holy  dragged  forth  by  them  to  scourging, 
to  torture,  and  to  death  ;  nor  a  sequestered  vale  that  has  not  been 
wet  with  the  tears  of  those  whom  they  have  overwhelmed  with 
injuries,  and  driven  to  despair. 

The  representation  that  power  was  given  to  those  whom  the 
horseman  represents,  that  they  should  kill  one  another,  has  had 
an  equal  verification  in  their  history. 

As  the  power  of  the  ecclesiastic  to  destroy,  which  the  sword 
of  the  civil  usurper  is  employed  to  symbolize,  is  a  power  to 
inflict  what  is  deemed  a  fatal  spiritual  wound,  and  is  an  ofiicial 
power,  the  killing  wliich  the  symbol  foreshows  is  on  the  one 
hand  either  an  excommunication  from  the  church,  or  a  sen- 
tence to  destruction,  whicii  in  their  judgment  infalhbly  draw 
after  them  the  ruin  of  the  soul,  and  are  the  only  species  of  official 
acts  that  are  supposed  to  carry  with  them  that  influence  ;  and  on 
the  other,  an  authoritative  compulsion  to  apostasy. 

They  have  from  the  commencement  of  tiicir  usurpations,  held 
that  union  with  their  church,  and  a  participation  in  its  rites,  were 


THE  SECOND  SEAL.  95 

essential  to  salvation,  and  claimed  the  power  and  right  to  admit  at 
their  will  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  by  admission  to  the  church,  or 
exclude  from  it  by  excommunication,  and  sentencing  to  destruc- 
tion. Thus  Cyprian  :  "  Whoever  is  separated  from  the  church, 
is  joined  to  an  adulteress,  and  disinherited  of  the  things  promised 
to  the  church  ;  for  he  cannot  attain  the  rewards  which  Christ 
bestows,  who  leaves  the  church  of  Christ.  He  is  an  alien,  pro- 
fane, an  enemy.  He  cannot  have  God  as  a  father,  who  has  not 
the  church  as  a  mother.  As  well  might  any  one  have  escaped 
who  was  out  of  Noah's  ark,  as  he  may  who  is  out  of  the  church."^ 
In  like  manner  the  fourth  Laleran  Council  in  1215  ;  una  vera 
est  fidelium  universalis  ecclesia,  extra  quam  nulhis  omnino  salva- 
tur.^  "  There  is  one  true  universal  church  of  believers,  out  of 
which  no  one  can  be  saved."  Boniface  VHI.  also  :  "  We  firmly 
believe  and  sincerely  profess  one  holy  catholic  church,  and  that 
apostolic,  out  of  which  there  is  neither  salvation,  nor  remission 
of  sins."^  Cyprian,  and  those  who  followed  in  his  train,  likewise 
regarded  the  gift  of  the  keys  to  Peter,  and  the  promise  to  the 
apostles  generally,  that  whatever  they  loosed  or  bound  on  earth, 
should  be  loosed  and  bound  in  heaven,  as  indicating  their  invest- 
iture with  the  power  of  giving  or  denying  salvation  by  an  admis- 
sion to  the  sacraments,  and  a  sentence  of  absolution  on  the  one 
hand,  or  debarring  from  them,  and  sentencing  to  excommunica- 
tion and  destruction  on  the  other.*  Thus  Chrysostom  :  "  Priests 
have  received  a  power  which  God  never  chose  to  confer  on  an- 
gels, for  it  was  never  said  to  them.  Whatsoever  ye  sliall  bind  on 
earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven,  and  whatsoever  ye  shall  loose  on 
earth,  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven.  Earthly  princes  have  a  power 
of  binding,  of  bodies  only  however ;  but  this  bond  grasps  the 
soul,  and  extends  to  heaven,  so  that  whatever  the  priests  do  be- 
low, God  legitimates  above,  confirming  the  sentence  of  his 
servants.  But  what  less  is  this,  than  that  he  has  conferred  on 
them  all  celestial  power  ;  for  whosesoever  sins,  he  said,  ye  remit, 
they  are  remitted,  and  whosesoever  ye  retain,  they  are  retained. 
Can  any  authority  be  greater  than  this  ?  All  judgment  was  given 
to  the  Son  by  the  Father,  but  here  I  see  it  all  devolved  by  the 

'  De  Unit.  Eccl.  c.  6. 

"  Labbei  Coucil.  torn.  xxii.  p.  982.  Bellarmine  also:  Extra  ecclesiam  nemo 
salvatur,  sicut  extra  arcam  Noo.     De  Eccl.  lib.  ill.  c.  3. 

'  Unam  sanctam  ecclesiam  catholicam  et  ipsam  apostolicatn  urgente  fide  credere 
coginiur  et  tenere,  nosque  hanc  firmiter  credimus  et  simpliciter  confitemur,  extra 
quam  nee  salus  est,  nee  remissio  peccatorum.  Const.  Extravagan.  lib.  i.  tit.  viii. 
c.  1. 

*  Cypriani  de  Unitate,  Eccl.  c.  4. 


96  THE  SECOND  SEAL. 

Son  on  them  ;  for  they  are  advanced  to  this  supremacy  precisely 
as  though  they  were  ah-eady  translated  to  heaven,  exalted  above 
human  nature,  and  freed  from  human  passion.  Moreover,  were 
a  king  to  confer  on  one  of  his  subjects  authority  to  imprison 
and  again  release  whoever  he  pleased,  he  would  be  admired  and 
envied  by  all.  But  the  priest  receives  an  authority  from  God 
as  much  greater,  as  heaven  is  superior  to  earth,  and  souls  to 
bodies. 

"  It  is  madness  to  despise  this  power  without  which  we  can  nei- 
ther attain  salvation,  nor  any  of  the  blessings  that  are  promised  ; 
for  if  no  one  can  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  except  he  be 
born  of  water  and  the  Spirit,  and  he  who  does  not  eat  the  flesh 
of  the  Lord  and  drink  his  blood  is  excluded  from  eternal  life,  and 
none  of  these  are  possible  except  through  the  consecrated  hands 
of  the  priest,  how  can  any  one  without  him  escape  the  fire  of 
hell  and  attain  a  crown  ?"^ 

Bellarmine  also  :  "  We  and  all  Catholics  interpret  the  keys 
given  to  Peter  of  supreme  power  over  the  whole  church." — "  In 
the  Scriptures  he  is  said  to  bind,  who  enjoins  and  who  punishes  ; 
— for  the  church  binds  those  on  whom  she  inflicts  excommunica- 
tion : — but  he  is  said  to  loose,  who  remits  sins — who  frees  from 
punishment,  who  releases  from  law,  from  vows,  oaths,  and  simi- 
lar obligations.  When  therefore  it  was  said  to  Peter  generally, 
whatsoever  you  loose  and  bind,  power  was  given  him  of  enjoin- 
ing, of  punishing,  of  releasing,  of  remitting,  so  that  he  was  con- 
stituted the  judge  and  the  prince  of  all  who  are  of  the  church."^ 
"  The  fathers  expressly  assert  that  in  the  promise  whatsoever 
thou  shalt  loose,  the  power  is  given  of  remitting  sins  through  the 
sacraments  of  baptism  and  penance."^  To  be  debarred  from  the 
sacraments  therefore  was  in  their  judgment  to  be  debarred  from 
salvation  ;  and  to  be  excommunicated  from  the  church  and  anathe- 
matized by  a  bishop,  a  pope,  a  synod,  or  a  general  council,  to  be 

'  De  Saceidotio,  lib.  iii.  c.  v. 

"  At  nos,  et  Catholic!  omnes  per  claves  datas  Petro  intelligimus  summam  potes- 
tatem  in  omnem  ecclesiam. — In  Scripturis  ligare  dicitur,  qui  prajeipit  et  qui  punit. — 
Ligat  enim  ecclesia  eos  quos  punit  poena  exconiinunicationis.  Solvere  autem 
dicitur,  qui  remittit  peccata,  qui  liberal  h  poena,  qui  dispensat  in  lege,  in  votis, 
juramentis,  et  simi!il)us  obligationibus.  Cum  ergo  dicitur  Petro  generaliter: — quic- 
qii id  solvere,  &e.,  datur  ei  potestas  prascipiendi,  pnuiendi,  dispensandi,  reniittendi 
proinde  fit  judex,  et  princeps  omnium,  qui  sunt  in  ecclesia.  BcUarmini  do  Roman. 
Pout.  lib.  i.  c.  13.     See  also  Van  Espen  de  Censuris  Eccl.  cap.  i. 

^  Deniquo  patres  diserte  asserunt  dari  hie  potestatcm  remittendi  peccati,  per  sa- 
cramenta  baptismi,  et  poenitentioe.  Bellarmiui  de  Roman.  Pont.  lib.  i.  c.  12.  See 
Baronius  also.  Anno  34,  No.  197;  and  Casaubon  Exercit.  in  Baron.  No.  127,  p. 
612. 


THE   SECOND  SEAL.  97 

devoted  to  perdition.^  It  has  been  the  doctrir.e  accordingly  of  the 
bishops  in  every  age,  that  they  held  a  spiritual  sw^ord  f  and  to 
strike  with  a  sentence  of  excommunication,  or  an  anathema,  has 
been  in  their  vocabulary  to  strike  spirituali  gladio,  with  the  spirit- 
ual sword  ;  excommunicationis  gladio,  with  the  sword  of  excom- 
munication ;  apostolico  mucrone,  with  the  apostolic  blade  ;  and 
pontiiicis  gladio,  the  sword  of  the  pontiff.    *'  The  proud  and  con- 

'  "  There  is  nothing  the  Christian  should  so  dread  as  to  be  separated  from  the 
body  of  Christ ;  for  if  separated  from  his  body  he  is  not  a  member  of  him  ;  and  if 
not  a  member  he  is  not  quickened  by  the  Spirit.  But  whoever  has  not  the  Spirit 
of  Christ  is  none  of  his.  Nihil  enim  sic  debet  foi-midare  Christianus  quam  separari  a 
corpore  Christi."     Augustini  apud  Gratiani  Decret.  Causa  xi.,  q.  3,  c.  33. 

Anciently  excommunication,  when  distinguished  from  anathema,  denoted  a  de- 
privation of  the  sacraments ;  and  an  anathema  an  ejection  from  the  church  as  a 
heathen  and  publican,  and  sentence  to  destruction.  After  the  twelfth  century  ex- 
communication was  distinguished  into  the  less,  which  was  a  simple  exclusion  from 
the  sacraments,  and  the  greater,  which  was  an  ejection  from  the  church,  while  an 
anathema  was  a  sentence  to  destruction:  Anathema  est  asternae  mortis  damnatio. 
Van  Espen,  de  Poenis  et  Censuris  Eccl.  c.  v.,  s.  1,  2,  3. 

In  the  firet  ages  set  fonns  of  excommunication  seem  not  to  have  been  used. 
The  canons  and  decrees  of  the  councils  of  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  ages,  simply 
sentence  their  violators  to  separation  from  the  church,  and  denounce  on  them  an 
anathema.  After  the  eighth  century,  to  invest  them  with  greater  significance  they 
were  often  expressed  in  set  fonns,  embracing  an  enumeration  of  the  curses  to  which 
their  victims  were  devoted.  Among  them  are  the  following :  "  By  the  judgment 
of  God  Almighty,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  and  of  the  blessed  Peter,  prince 
of  the  apostles  and  of  all  saints,  and  also  by  our  subordinate  authority  and  the 
power  divinely  given  us  of  binding  and  loosing  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  we  debar 
him  and  all  his  accomplices  and  favorers  from  the  participation  of  the  precious  body 
and  blood  of  Christ,  and  from  the  society  of  all  Christians,  exclude  him  from  the 
threshold  of  holy  mother  church  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  decree  him  to  bo  excom- 
municated and  anathematized,  and  adjudge  him  condemned  with  the  devil  and  his 
angels,  and  all  the  reprobate,  to  eternal  fire,  until  he  shall  recover  himself  from  the 
snare  of  the  devil,  return  to  amendment  and  penance,  and  make  satisfaction  to  the 
church  of  God  v/hich  he  has  injured."  Van  Espen,  de  Censuris  Eccl.  c.  v.,  s.  vi.,  p. 
108. 

"  Unless  they  sincerely  repent  and  make  satisfaction  to  our  mediocrity  which 
they  have  injured,  we  confound  them  with  an  eternal  malediction,  we  condemn 
them  with  a  perpetual  anathema.  Let  them  incur  the  wrath  of  the  supreme  judge. 
Let  them  be  aliens  from  the  heritage  of  God  and  his  elect,  and  neither  in  the  pres- 
ent life  have  communion  with  Christians,  nor  obtain  a  part  with  God  and  his  saints 
in  that  which  is  to  come  ;  but  let  them  be  associated  with  the  devil  and  his  minis- 
ters, and  suffer  the  punishment  of  avenging  fire  with  eternal  sorrow.  May  they 
be '  hated  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  tortured  with  the  inflictions  of  hell  forever. 
Let  them  be  cursed  in  the  house,  let  them  be  cursed  in  the  field.  Let  the  food  and 
fruit  of  their  bodies  be  cursed.  Let  all  be  cursed  which  they  possess,  from  the  dog 
that  barks  at  them,  to  the  cock  that  crows  in  their  hearing.  Let  their  part  be  with 
Dathan  and  Abiron  whom  hell  engulfed  alive,  with  Ananias  and  Sajjphira  who 
were  instantly  struck  dead,  and  with  Pilate  and  Judas  the  traitor,  nor  lot  them  have 
any  other  burial  than  that  of  an  ass,  and  so  let  their  lamp  be  extinguished  in  dark- 
ness.   Amen."     Van  Espen,  de  Cens.  Eccl.  c.  v.,  s.  vi.,  p.  108. 

'  Uterque  ergo  est  in  potestale  ecclesiffi,  spiritualis  scilicet  gladius  et  materifdifl. 
ExtravagEiiu  Comm.,  lib.  i.,  tit.  viii.,  c.  i. 

13 


98  THE   SECOND  SEAL. 

tumacious  are  slain  with  the  spiritual  sword  when  they  are  eject- 
ed from  the  church."'  "  The  sword  of  excommunication  is  the  ef- 
fective instrument  of  ecclesiastical  discipline."^  "  They  are  brand- 
ed with  infamy,  and  cut  off  by  the  apostolic  blade  from  the  bo- 
som of  holy  mother  church."^  *'  The  throats  of  the  heresies  that 
arose  during  this  pontificate,  were  cut  by  the  sword  of  the  Pon- 
tiff."* And  those  spiritual  wounds  could,  in  their  judgment,  be 
healed  only  by  the  hand  which  inflicted  them,  or  some  superior 
power  intrusted  by  the  canons  with  the  requisite  authority. 

The  power  they  thus  acquired  to  kill  one  another,  according 
to  their  estimate  of  the  oflScial  import  of  those  acts,  they  have 
exercised  on  a  vast  scale.  Excommunication  was  the  usual 
penalty  inflicted  by  bishops  for  the  violation  of  their  canons,  and 
the  councils  began  at  an  early  day  to  excommunicate  those 
wdiom  they  condemned,  and  pronounce  anathemas  on  those  who 
dissented  from  their  doctrine,  or  disregarded  their  disciplinary 
laws.  Thus  the  council  of  Nicaea  sentenced  those  to  excom- 
munication who  held  the  doctrine  of  Arius.  The  Arian  coun- 
cils of  Sirmium  and  Seleucia  pronounced  anathemas  on  those 
who  dissented  from  their  creed.  The  council  of  Antioch  ex- 
communicated those  who  disregarded  the  doctrinal  definitions 
of  Nicaea,  or  violated  its  own  canons.  At  the  council  of  Ephe- 
sus,  Cyril  and  his  party  excommunicated  John  of  Antioch  and 
his  associates,  and  John  and  his  coadjutors  retorted  the  sen- 
tence on  Cyril  and  his  party.  The  council  of  Constantinople 
under  Leo  excommunicated  the  worshippers  of  idols  ;  the  second 
council  of  Nicaea  and  the  fourth  Lateran  those  who  denounced 
their  worship  as  idolatry.  The  bishop  of  Rome  excommunicated 
the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and  the  patriarch  of  Constantino- 
ple the  bishop  of  Rome.  The  pope  excommunicated  the  pre- 
lates of  Germany,  the  prelates  of  Germany  excommunicated  the 
pope ;  and  the  rival  popes  of  the  fifteenth  century  excommuni- 
cated each  other,  and  were  themselves  excommunicated  by  the 
councils  of  Pisa,  Constance,  and  Basle. 

The  contests  of  patriarchs  and  popes  with  each  other  were  of 

'  Spirituali  gladio  superbi  et  contnmaces  necantur,  dum  de  ecclesia  ejiciuntiir. 
'Cypriani  Epist.  iv.,  c.  4. 

'''  Exconimunicationis  g;ladiiis  nervus  sit  ecclesiasticae  discipliiiBB.  Concil.  Trident. 
Sess.  XXV.  de  Reformatione,  c.  iii. 

*  Infainia  sunt  notati,  et  a  sinu  sanctae  matris  ecclesiee  apostolico  mucrone  ab- 
«cissi.     Fabiani  Siipp.  Epist.  i.,  Labbei  Concil.  tom.  i.  p.  772. 

*  Pontificis  gladio  jugulatoe  sunt.  Labbei  Concil.  tom.  i.  p.  768,  u.  There  are 
many  other  forms :  Excommunicationis  se  noverit  mucrone  percussum.  Bum  eccle- 
siastics animadversionis  mucrone  fcricmus.  Eum  apostolico  aiiathematis  mucrone 
vulnerit.     Anatliematis  se  sciat  mucrone  percussum. 


THE   SECOND  SEAL.  99 

little  significance  however,  compared  with  the  ceaseless  blows 
inflicted  by  them  on  their  inferior  bishops,  and  by  the  bishops 
on  their  clergy  and  flocks.  From  the  tenth  to  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury especially,  the  whole  episcopal  army  were  incessantly  bran- 
dishing their  swords,  and  striking  down  their  victims,  and  ren- 
dering the  church  by  their  folly  and  vengeance  a  vast  scene  of 
terror,  turmoil,  and  misery.  The  frequency  of  excommunication 
during  the  tenth  and  following  ages,  and  the  frivolousness  of  the 
causes  for  which  it  was  inflicted,  especially  after  the  prelates 
began  to  use  their  spiritual  sword  for  the  protection  of  their  tem- 
poral as  well  as  their  ecclesiastical  rights,  transcends  description. 
The  evil  became  so  enormous  that  decrees  were  enacted  by  the 
councils  of  Constance  and  Trent  to  restrain  the  abuse.^ 

But  beside  these  sentences,  which  were  regarded  as  carrying 
spiritual  death  to  those  against  whom  they  were  directed,  they 
made  their  legislative  and  judicial  power  the  means  of  actually 
inflicting  a  fatal  wound  on  one  another,  and  on  multitudes  of  their 
people,  by  betraying  or  forcing  them  to  an  apostasy  from  God 
that  necessarily  involved  a  spiritual  death. 

They  have  from  the  commencement  of  their  usurpation  im- 
posed their  legislative  acts  on  one  another,  and  enforced  them 
by  all  the  pretended  authority  of  their  office,  and  all  the  rewards 
and  penalties  with  which  the  civil  magistrate  has  been  induced 
to  support  their  discipline  ;  and  held  that  as  they  had  a  right  to 
dictate  to  their  people,  so  they  were  under  obligation  to  submit 
to  the  decrees  and  enactments  of  their  own  order  as  of  absolute 
authority,  when  imposed  by  the  body,  a  general,  national,  or  pro- 
vincial council  to  which  they  were  subordinate,  or  a  patriarch  or 
pope  to  whom  they  regarded  themselves  as  owing  allegiance  ; 
and  have  thus  betrayed  each  other  into  apostasy  from  God  by 
that  assumption  of  legislative  power  over  his  rights  and  laws,  and 
by  their  usurped  authority  have  driven  each  other  in  numerous 
instances  into  the  adoption  of  doctrines  that  involved  a  revolt 
■from  him.  and  transference  of  their  homage  to  creatures  and  to 
idols,  and  thence  inevitably  precipitated  them  to  everlasting  ruin. 
Thus  the  Arians  on  their  accession  to  power  under  Constantius 
and  Valens,  induced  the  great  body  of  the  clergy  by  authoritative 
dictation  and  the  threat  of  deposition,  confiscation  of  their  pro- 
perty, torture  and  banishment,  to  adopt  their  peculiar  creed,  and 
sincerely,  doubtless  in  many  instances,  on  the  ground  on  which 
the  nationalization  of  the  church  and  the  legislation  of  councils 
proceeded,  that  bishops  and  princes  had  a  right  to  dictate  the 
'  Van  Etspen.  de  Cens.  Eccl.  c.  vii.  s.  v. 


100  THE   SECOND  SEAL. 

faith  and  worship  of  the  church.  The  councils  of  Chalcedon, 
the  fourth  Lateran,  and  Trent,  authorized  and  enjoined  the  invo- 
cation of  saints,  the  homage  of  rchcs,  and  the  worship  of  images, 
enforced  them  on  all  the  churches  subject  to  their  jurisdiction  by 
an  anathema,  and  by  their  authority  thus  became  the  reason  to 
the  thousands  that  followed  in  their  train,  of  receiving  those  im- 
pious doctrines,  and  offering  that  idolatrous  worship. 

But  besides  this  legislative  authority,  other  efficient  induce- 
ments were  employed  to  constrain  them  to  the  reception  of  their 
creed  and  participation  in  their  rites.  The  excommunicated 
were  not  only  not  allowed  to  unite  in  the  worship  of  the  church, 
or  enter  religious  assemblies,  but  were  debarred  from  society, 
deprived  of  civil  privileges  and  rights,  divested  of  their  property, 
and  rendered  infamous.  Thus  the  tenth  canon  falsely  ascribed 
to  the  apostles — "  If  any  one  unites  in  prayer  with  an  excommu- 
nicate even  in  a  family,  let  him  be  debarred  from  communion  ;"* 
and  the  council  of  Antioch,  "  It  is  not  allowable  to  communicate 
with  the  excommunicated,  nor  to  assemble  in  private  houses  to 
pray  with  those  who  do  not  pray  together  in  the  church,  nor  to 
receive  those  in  one  church  who  do  not  meet  together  in  another. 
Let  the  bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon  who  is  found  communicating 
with  the  excommunicated,  be  himself  excommunicated  for  disre- 
garding the  canons  of  the  church."^  They  were  not  allowed  to 
give  evidence  against  a  bishop,  whatever  were  his  official  crimes 
either  against  them  or  others.  Thus  the  council  of  Constanti- 
nople :  "  It  is  not  lawful  for  heretics  to  accuse  orthodox  bishops 
in  respect  to  ecclesiastical  affairs  ;  and  by  heretics  we  mean 
those  who  have  first  been  ejected  from  the  church  and  afterwards 
anathematized,  and  those  also  who,  though  professing  the  true 
faith,  have  yet  separated  and  been  cut  off,  and  formed  an  assem- 
bly adverse  to  our  canonical  bishops."^  They  were  denied  the 
rights  of  property  and  citizenship,  and  placed  out  of  the  protec- 
tion of  law.  Thus  pope  Gregory  X.  sentenced  Guide  de  Mont- 
fort  :  "  Alhough  such  temerity  transcends  the  severest  punish- 
ment, )'et  that  it  may  not  go  wholly  unrequited,  and  its  impunity 
excite  to  further  attempts,  we  have  determined  as  far  as  our 
official  power  allows  to  visit  him  with  merited  acerbity.  There- 
fore havhig  deliberated  with  our  brethren  and  giving  sentence  by 
their  counsel,  we  pronounce  the  aforesaid  Guido  de  Montfort  a 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  i.  p.  33. 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  ii.  c.  2,  p.  1309.  Also  Concil.  Carth.  can.  vii.  Labbei, 
torn.  iii.  p.  694. 

^  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  iii.  p.  561. 


THE  SECOND  SEAL  101 

convicted  perpetrator  of  that  flagitious  crime" — assassination — 
"  condemn  him  as  such  to  the  loss  of  his  rank,  and  sentence  him 
to  be  branded  with  perpetual  infamy.  Let  him  be  so  wholly 
detestable  that  he  can  neither  make  a  will,  nor  receive  property 
either  by  will,  or  from  an  intestate,  or  by  succession  to  any  one. 
Nor  let  him  be  allowed  to  give  testimony.  His  goods  also  wher- 
ever situated,  we  sentence  to  confiscation  by  those  within  whose 
jurisdiction  they  are,  without  prejudice  to  any  one's  right.  We 
forbid  to  Guido  himself  all  jurisdiction,  care  and  power  over  the 
lands  also  and  other  property  of  his  wife,  strictly  enjoining  that 
no  obedience  be  rendered  to  him  in  respect  to  them  or  any  other 
lands  whatsoever,  and  bind  any  one  who  may  obey  him,  with  the 
sentence  of  excommunication  ;  and  the  land  which  obeys  him  we 
subject  to  an  ecclesiastical  interdict,  so  that  no  sacrament  can  be 
administered  to  any  one  in  it,  except  baptism  to  infants,  penance, 
and  the  eucharist  to  the  dying.  We  deprive  him  wholly  of  all 
that  he  holds  from  churches  of  whatever  kind,  or  has  in  trust  in 
any  other  manner,  so  that  it  may  revert  without  obstruction  to  the 
churches  to  which  it  pertains.  And  that  the  punishment  of  his 
crime  to  be  inflicted  and  to  abide  on  his  posterity,  also  may  be 
made  known  to  all  in  future  times,  we  by  the  same  authority 
decree  that  neither  Guido  nor  his  descendants  to  the  fourth  gen- 
eration, unless  they  shall  become  entitled  to  the  favor  of  this 
seat,  shall  be  eligible  to  any  dignity.  No  access  to  any  dignity 
shall  be  opened  to  them,  or  any  one  of  them,  nor  any  audience 
be  granted  to  them,  or  others  in  their  behalf  in  order  to  their 
soliciting  it.  No  one  of  them  shall  ever  be  advanced  to  any 
ecclesiastical  or  worldly  honor,  or  any  public  office  whatever, 
ecclesiastical  benefice,  or  promotion  in  the  monasteries.  More- 
over we  divest  the  aforesaid  Guido  of  all  protection  short  of  the 
peril  of  death  and  mutilation,  and  put  him  under  interdict,  so 
that  excepting  that  danger,  his  person  may  be  freely  seized  by 
any  one.  We  moreover  strictly  command  all  prefects  of  pro- 
vinces whatever  may  be  the  title  they  bear,  and  all  magistrates, 
consuls,  and  commanders  of  cities,  camps  and  other  places,  to 
seize  him  and  conduct  him  to  our  court  to  be  committed  to  pri- 
son, or  punished  in  such  other  manner  as  we  may  approve.  We 
bind  him  also  as  sacrilegious  and  contumacious  with  the  sentence 
of  excommunication,  and  decree  that  all  places  which  he  enters, 
unless  seized  and  detained  in  them  in  order  to  be  conducted  to 
us,  be  placed  as  long  as  he  remains  in  them,  under  an  ecclesias- 
tical interdict.  We  moreover  by  this  interdict  prohibit  all  and 
every  city,  community,  and  corporation  whatever,  and  all  persons 


102  THE   SECOND  SEAL. 

of  whatever  rank  or  condition  though  even  of  imperial,  regal,  or 
any  other  dignity,  from  receiving  him,  or  as  far  as  in  their  povi'er 
allovv^ing  him  to  be  received.  Let  no  one  have  any  transaction 
or  commerce  with  him,  unless  such  as  concerns  the  salvation  of 
his  soul.  Let  no  one  yield  him  any  aid,  or  counsel,  or  favor, 
open  or  secret.  Let  no  one  enter  into  any  association  or  con- 
federation with  him  under  any  pretext,  color  or  machination 
whatever ;  and  all  persons  whatever  who  presume  to  do  other- 
wise, shall  incur  by  that  act  the  sentence  of  excommunication, 
which  we  now  pronounce  on  them, — and  the  society  that  shall 
do  otherwise  and  their  lands  who  shall  enter  into  a  confederation 
with  him,  we  place  under  an  ecclesiastical  interdict. 

"  And  finally,  we  wish  all  the  aforementioned  sentences  of  ex- 
communication to  be  so  inflexibly  observed,  that  we  divest  ail  our 
penitentiaries,  confessors,  and  all  others  of  all  power  of  absolving 
from  them,  or  relaxing  them,  except  at  the  moment  of  death.'" 

This  sentence  to  excommunication,  disfranchisement,  and  in- 
famy, though  prompted  in  the  instance  of  Guido  by  an  atrocious 
crime,  exemplifies  the  penalties  with  which  they  were  accustom- 
ed to  pursue  all  who  refused  submission  to  their  sway. 

The  ecclesiastical  sword,  when  so  tempered  as  to  give  birth  at 
every  stroke  to  this  tremendous  array  of  consequences,  became 
an  instrument  of  persuasion  and  compulsion  which  no  human 
power,  unless  armed  by  the  grace  of  the  Almighty,  was  adequate 
to  resist,  and  crushed  every  order  of  the  hierarchies  themselves, 
and  the  whole  church  and  empire  into  vinquestioning  and  abject 
acquiescence  in  whatever  doctrines  and  rites  it  was  employed  to 
enforce.  To  such  an  extent  was  this  carried,  that  an  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  usurped  powers  of  bishops,  patriarchs,  popes, 
and  councils  became  the  great  test  of  orthodoxy  and  piety,  and 
the  reception  or  rejection  of  their  doctrines  and  rites  continued  of 
importance  less  because  of  their  own  nature,  than  of  the  acknowl- 
edgment or  denial  which  they  involved  of  that  authority.  Bisli- 
ops  were  required  on  their  induction  into  office  to  profess  the 
false  dogmas  and  adopt  the  idolatrous  rites  of  the  church,  ratify 
all  the  arrogations  of  the  pope,  and  promise  implicit  obedience  to 
his  will ;  and  so  absolute  was  the  tnumph  of  the  artifice  over  the 
general  reason  and  conscience,  so  blind  and  unquestioning  was 
the  credence  of  all  orders  in  its  legitimacy,  that  for  many  centu- 
ries scarce  a  monarch,  a  prince,  or  a  prelate  who  was  struck  by 
an  anathema,  failed  to  procure  by  submission,  bribes,  or  force,  a 
reconciliation  with  the  papal  see.    It  was  extorted  by  the  sword, 

'  Bullarii  Mag.,  torn.  viii.  pp.  81,  62. 


THE  SECOND  SEAL.  103 

purchased  by  gifts,  or  gained  by  concessions  and  humiliations, 
by  the  emperors  of  Germany,  the  kings  of  France,  England, 
Spain,  and  Sicily,  and  a  long  train  of  princes,  prelates,  barons, 
statesmen,  and  speculatists.  It  was  thus  by  this  dread  engine 
that  the  several  orders  of  ecclesiastics  were  made  to  unite  in  the 
superstitions,  idolatries,  and  blasphemies  of  the  Greek  and  Papal 
systems,  and  the  whole  body  of  the  church  struck  with  spiritual 
death.  It  was  the  instrument  by  which  they  were  forced  to  all 
the  great  steps  of  their  apostasy,  the  worship  of  images,  the  hom- 
age of  relics,  the  invocation  of  saints,  the  idolatry  of  the  mass, 
the  exaltation  of  the  pope.  It  was  the  power  by  which  opposi- 
tion was  arrested,  dissidence  silenced,  and  every  incumbent  of 
the  sacred  office  compelled  into  concurrence  and  approval.  Had 
there  been  no  legislation  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  churches  in  the 
eighth  century,  the  worship  of  images  would  not  have  gained  a 
universal  prevalence.  Had  the  powerful  party  which  opposed  it 
been  allowed  freedom  of  discussion,  and  liberty  to  follow  the 
teaching  of  the  Scriptures,  they  would  have  preserved  the  knowl- 
edge and  belief  of  the  truth,  and  perpetuated  a  succession  of  true 
worshippers.  Had  the  opponents  of  transubstantiation  in  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  been  allowed  to  assail  error  without 
obstruction,  they  would  have  triumphed  over  the  ignorance,  ab- 
surdity, and  blasphemy  of  that  doctrine,  and  been  followed  in 
integrity  and  wisdom  by  a  vast  train  of  disciples  to  the  present 
day;  and  were  perfect  freedom  of  discussion  now  permitted  in 
the  Catholic  and  Greek  communions,  and  the  Scriptures  alone 
made  the  standard  of  faith,  a  vast  crowd  whose  lips  are  now 
sealed,  and  whose  reason  and  conscience  are  smothered  by 
a  blind  trust  in  the  prerogatives  of  councils  and  popes,  or  a  dread 
of  anathemas,  would  speedily  emerge  from  the  abyss  of  error  and 
folly  in  which  they  are  immersed,  and  discern,  embrace,  and  ad- 
vocate the  truth  in  its  purity  and  dignity. 

And  finally,  on  the  acquisition  of  this  tremendous  power,  the 
representation  that  a  great  sword  was  given  to  the  horseman, 
was  verified. 

The  bishop  originally  had  authority  only  over  his  own  diocese, 
and  could  discipline  and  excommunicate  none  but  those  of  his 
own  church.  By  their  association,  however,  in  synods,  they  ac- 
quired authority  over  each  other,  and  on  their  organization  under 
metropolitans  and  patriarchs,  they  invested  those  great  prelates 
with  the  power  of  assembling  synods,  and  issuing  and  enforcing 
authoritative  sentences  ;  and  finally,  on  the  elevation  of  the  pope 
to  supremacy,  he  acquired  the  power  of  dictating  whatever  doc- 


104  THE  SECOND  SEAL. 

trines  and  enjoining  whatever  worship  he  pleased,  and  of  enforcing 
his  will  by  all  the  penalties  which  the  most  remorseless  malice 
could  invent,  or  the  most  lawless  tyranny  inflict,  and  exerted  his 
authority  at  his  will,  not  only  on  individuals,  whether  monarchs, 
princes,  prelates,  or  unofficial,  but  often  struck  at  once  with  his 
gigantic  sword  whole  classes,  whole  hierarchies,  and  whole  na- 
tions. 

Such  are  the  verifications  of  the  symbol  which  the  history  of 
the  church  presents  ;  such  the  resistless  demonstration  that  the 
prelates  to  whom  I  have  applied  it,  are  the  persons  whom  it  rep- 
resents. There  is  no  other  order  of  men  in  the  church  to  whom 
it  is  in  any  degree  applicable.  No  class  of  its  ministers  except 
bishops,  for  a  long  series  of  ages  arrogated  the  power  of  legisla- 
tion over  its  faith  and  worship.  No  order  except  diocesans  have 
by  their  official  power  taken  peace  from  the  earth,  and  agitated, 
torn,  and  devoured  alike  the  church  and  civil  empire  with  ani- 
mosities, discords,  and  wars  ;  and  they  are  the  only  class  in  the 
churches  under  episcopal  government  that  have  ever  had  author- 
ity to  depose  from  the  sacred  office,  strike  with  excommunica- 
tions and  anathemas,  and  compel  one  another  thereby  to  the  re- 
ception of  doctrines  and  adoption  of  riles  that  necessarily  carried 
death  to  the  soul. 

The  expositions  that  have  been  given  of  this  seal  are  very  va- 
rious. Mr.  Brightman  interprets  it  of  the  wars  of  the  Roman 
empire  with  exterior  nations ;  Grotius,  Dr.  Hammond,  Cocce- 
ius,  Eichhorn,  and  Rosenmuller  of  the  contests  of  the  Jews  with 
the  people  with  whom  they  were  intermixed  in  Judea  and  else- 
where, or  with  the  Roman  armies  during  the  reign  of  Nero  and 
Vespasian ;  Mr.  Mede,  Dr.  More,  Mr.  Daubuz,  Mr.  Jurieu,  Mr. 
Lowman,  Mr.  Whiston,  Bishop  Newton,  and  others,  of  the  re- 
volts of  the  Jews  under  Hadrian ;  Mr.  Elliott  of  the  revolutions 
and  slaughters  by  the  praetorian  guards  during  the  second  and 
third  centuries  ;  Vitringa  of  the  persecutions  of  Christians  by 
Decius,  Valerian,  and  Diocletian ;  and  Mr.  Faber  of  ihe  Medo- 
Persian  empire.  These  incongruous  and  contradictory  interpre- 
tations are  all  founded  on  the  assumption  that  the  symbol  and  the 
agents  symbolized  are  of  the  same  species,  and  carry  on  their 
front  therefore  the  most  indisputable  proof  of  their  erroneousness. 
Dean  Woodhouse,  who  regards  the  symbol  as  representing  con- 
tests within  the  church,  interprets  it  also  literally  ol  slaughters  and 
wars,  and  violates  therefore  in  like  manner  the  law  of  analogy. 


THE    THIRD    SEAL.  105 

SECTION  X. 

CHAPTER  VI.     5-6. 

THE    THIRD    SEAL. 

And  wlien  he  opened  the  third  seal,  I  heard  the  third  living  crea- 
ture say,  Come.  And  I  looked,  and  lo,  a  black  horse,  and  he  that  sat 
on  him  having  a  balance  in  his  hand,  and  I  heard  a  voice  in  the 
midst  of  the  four  living  creatures  say,  A  chcenix  of  wheat  for  a  de- 
narius, and  three  chcenices  of  barley  for  a  denarius,  and  the  oil  and 
the  wine  thou  mayest  not  injure. 

This  symbol  also  is  taken  from  political  life  in  the  Roman  em- 
pire, and.  is  a  ruler  who  reduces  his  subjects  to  v^ant  and  mis- 
ery by  taxation  ;  as  is  denoted  first  by  the  balance,  me  symbol  of 
a  civil  magistrate,  as  a  bow  or  a  sword  is  of  a  warrior  ;  next,  by 
the  wheat  and  the  barley,  the  oil  and  the  wine,  which  indicate 
that  he  exercises  authority  over  those  articles.  Thirdly,  by  the 
price,  which  implies  that  he  determines  the  rates  at  which  they 
are  to  be  valued,  if  coin  be  received  in  their  place,  or  the  price 
at  which  the  produce  of  land  is  to  be  taken  to  render  the  sum  in 
coin  at  which  it  is  to  be  assessed,  proportional  to  its  productive- 
ness ;  and.  the  rates  also  at  which  it  is  to  be  sold  when  distributed 
to  the  citizens  from  the  public  granaries  at  a  price.  Fourthly, 
by  the  prohibition  to  injure  the  oil  and  the  wine,  which  denotes 
that  the  exactions  are  so  oppressive  that  the  husbandman  prunes 
the  fig-tree  and  vine  to  such  a  degree  as  to  prevent  their  bearing, 
in  order  to  exempt  them  from  assessments.  And  finally,  by  the 
color  of  the  horse,  which  is  indicative  of  affliction. 

The  voice  from  the  living  creatures  is  to  be  regarded  as  de- 
scriptive of  the  agency  he  is  to  exert,  and  the  laws  he  is  to  im- 
pose, not  prophetic  of  restraints  to  which  he  is  himself  to  be  sub- 
jected. A  denarius  it  would  seem  from  Matthew  xx.  2,  was  the 
usual  price  at  that  period  in  Judeaof  aday's  labor  in  agriculture. 
A  chcenix  of  wheat  was  in  Greece  the  usual  allowance  for  a  day's 
sustenance.*  Thence  that  rate  of  wheat,  though  the  capacity  of 
the  choenix  is  uncertain,  may  be  considered  as  denoting  a  diffi- 
culty to  the  poor  of  supplying  their  personal  wants,  and  much 
more  the  wants  of  families  and  dependants.  Greater  exactness 
in  weight  and  measure  is  observed  by  those  who  create  high 

»  Herodoti  lib.  vii.  187. 

14 


106  THE   THIRD    SEAL. 

prices  ;  and  high  rates  of  food,  as  they  almost  universally  involve 
a  corresponding  depreciation  of  other  rates,  and  of  labor  as  well 
as  commodities,  render  it  difficult  to  the  poor  to  gain  adequate 
means  of  subsistence.  That  scarcity  is  the  effect  of  the  horse- 
man's agency,  is  seen  moreover  by  the  exhibition  of  death  under 
the  fourth  seal,  as  employing  the  agents  of  the  second  and  third, 
under  the  denomination  of  the  sword  ^nd  famine. 

That  such  is  the  horseman,  and  such  the  agency  he  is  to  ex- 
ert, is  confirmed  moreover  by  the  incongruities  which  embarrass 
other  constructions.  Thus  to  regard  him,  as  he  has  been  exhib- 
ited by  many  interpreters,  as  famine  itself,  not  one  who  causes 
famine,  is  to  make  him  the  mere  symbol  of  a  symbol ;  for  if  the 
horseman  with  his  accompaniments  as  a  symbol  is  famine,  he  is 
indisputably  such  not  literally,  but  only  by  representation.  A 
rider  on  a  black  horse  holding  a  balance  and  determining  the 
rates  of  grain,  is  not  identically  the  same  as  famine.  The  one  is 
a  living  intelligent  agent  acting  in  a  particular  sphere,  and  exert- 
ing a  peculiar  agency  ;  the  other  a  certain  relation  between  eat- 
ers and  the  supply  of  food.  But  to  treat  the  representative  agent 
in  that  manner  as  not  the  real  symbol,  but  the  mere  personifica- 
tion of  the  symbol,  is  wholly  unauthorized,  and  overthrows  all 
certainty  of  interpretation.  As  well  might  it  be  assumed  that  the 
words  which  the  apostle  employed  in  describing  the  horseman 
and  his  agency,  are  not  the  real  words  which  embody  their  de- 
scription, but  only  representatives  of  another  and  wholly  different 
set  to  which  that  office  is  assigned.  The  horseman  is  himself 
therefore  with  his  accompaniments  the  symbol ;  is  like  those 
which  preceded  him  an  agent,  and  exerts  an  agency  in  conform- 
ity first  with  his  office,  denoted  by  the  balance  and  the  determi- 
nation of  the  prices  of  grain  ;  and  next,  with  the  mode  in  which 
he  administers  that  office,  indicated  by  the  color  of  the  horse,  the 
high  rates  of  grain,  and  the  prohibition  to  injure  the  oil  and  the 
wine. 

All  these  were  characteristics  and  peculiarities  of  the  Roman 
emperors,  especially  of  the  third  and  fourth  centuries.  They  im- 
posed the  various  taxes  for  the  support  of  the  court,  the  army, 
the  civil  service  and  the  cities,  and  determined  the  species  in 
which  they  were  to  be  levied,  and  the  modes  of  their  collection.^ 

*  "  All  magistrates  shall,  when  a  census  is  made,  designate  with  their  own  hand 
the  species  of  produce  and  other  things  which  are  rated  in  the  indiction,  and  express 
the  quantities."  Mann  propria  Judices  universi  periculo  suo  annonarias  species  et  caj- 
tera  quns  iiidictione  penduntur,  definitis  quantitatibus,  et  comprehensis  modis,  facta 
adscriptione,  designent. — Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xi.  Tit.  i.  1.  3.  Soo  also  1.  6,  15,  18, 
20,  28. 


THE   THIRD    SEAL.  107 

A  large  portion  of  the  contributions  exacted  from  the  subject  were 
the  products  of  the  soil,  grain,  oil,  wine,  wood.'  The  lands  were 
assessed  in  proportion  to  the  nature  of  their  products  and  their 
fruitfulness.^  The  subject  in  some  cases,  instead  of  delivering 
the  kinds  that  were  levied,  which  he  might  be  obliged  to  pur- 
chase or  convey  to  an  inconvenient  distance,  was  allowed  to  give 
their  equivalent  at  rates  fixed  by  the  exactor  in  coin.^  At  other 
periods  the  receivers  were  prohibited  from  such  exchanges,  and 
required  to  exact  the  articles  designated  in  the  indictions.^  The 
exactions  were  so  excessive  as  to  induce  the  cultivators  in  some 
cases  to  mutilate  their  fruit  trees  and  vines  to  such  a  degree  as 
to  render  them  unproductive,  at  least  for  the  year  of  assessment, 
in  order  to  escape  the  tax  on  their  products.  "  If  any  one  shall 
sacrilegiously  cut  a  vine,  or  stint  the  fruit  of  prolific  boughs,  and 
craftily  feign  poverty  in  order  to  avoid  a  fair  assessment,  he  shall 
immediately  on  detection  suffer  death,  and  his  property  be  con- 
fiscated."^ If,  as  is  probable  from  the  period  of  the  indiclions,^  the 
measurement  of  the  lands  and  estimate  of  their  produce  was  made 
but  once  in  fifteen  years,  that  space  presented  a  strong  motive  to 
such  an  expedient.  The  prohibition  denotes  the  extreme  to 
which  assessments  were  carried.  All  fruitful  trees  and  vines 
were  numbered,  an  estimate  made  of  their  annual  products,  and 
a  contribution  levied  proportional  to  that  estimate.'^  It  indicates 
likewise  the  severity  with  which  the  impositions  were  exacted. 

Of  the  produce  thus  drawn  from  Italy  and  the  provinces,  a  large 
portion  was  destined  for  the  great  cities,  especially  Rome,  and 

'  Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xi.  tit.  i.  1.  6,  15.  Dion.  Cassii  Hist.  Rom.  lib.  Ixxvii.  c. 
9,  10. 

"  Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xiii.  tit.  xi.  1. 2,  3.  ^  Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xi.  tit.  i.  1.  6. 

■*  "  Let  no  one  hereafter  exact  gold  of  the  city  of  Rome,  instead  of  the  species  which 
are  levied."  Nemini  aurum  pro  speciebus  urbis  Romas  liceat  exigere  de  future. — Cod- 
icis Theod.  lib.  xi.  tit.  i.  1.  8.  "  That  no  one  may  presume  that  money  is  to  be  sub- 
stituted for  produce,  let  it  be  made  known  that  no  receipt  will  be  given  to  tliose  who 
captiously  violate  the  law  on  tliis  subject."  Ne  quis  pro  speciebus  annonariis  pecu- 
nias  existimet  inferendas,  scientibus  cuuctis,  quod  si  quis  contra  banc  Serenitatis  Nos- 
tras legem  captiosum  aliquid  putaverit  perpetrandum,  Securitatibus  hoc  mode  editis 
eos  esKe  carituros. — Lib.  xi.  tit.  iii.  1.  5.  Also,  tit.  ii.  1.  4. 

°  Si  quis  sacriiega  vitem  falce  succideret,  aut  feracium  ramorum  fetus  hebetaverit, 
qui)  declinet  fidem  censuum,  et  mentiatur  callide  paupertatis  ingenium,  mox  detec- 
tus  capitaie  subibit  exitium,  et  bona  ejus  in  fisci  jura  migrabunt.  Illo  videlicet  vi- 
tante  calumniam,  qui  fortiter  detegitur  laborasse,  pro  copia  ac  reparandis  agrorum 
foetibus,  non  sterilitatem  ant  inopiam  procurasse — taking  care,  however,  not  to  con- 
found that  pruning  vvhicli  is  designed  to  promote  fruitfulness,  with  that  which  is  in- 
tended to  cause  sterility. — Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xiii.  tit.  xi.  1.  1. 

'  Gibbon's  Hist.  Decl.  and  Fall,  chap.  xvii. 

'  Agri  glebatim  metiebantnr,  vites  et  arbores  numerabantur,  animalia  omnis  gen- 
eris scribebantur,  hominum  capita  notabantur. — Lactantii  de  Mort.  Pei-secut.  e.  23. 


108  THE    THIRD    SEAL. 

in  the  fourth  century  Constantinople  ;  and  though  designed  as  a 
provision  against  scarcity,^  was  occasionally  at  least  so  adminis- 
tered as  to  give  birth  to  that  evil.  The  gratuitous  distribution 
was  sometimes  suddenly  diminished  or  discontinued,  and  private 
dealers  and  the  prefect  of  the  public  magazines  enabled,  by  the 
great  multiplication  of  purchasers,  to  exact  higher  prices.  Thus 
Augustus  on  one  occasion  reduced  the  recipients  from  an  almost 
innumerable  multitude,  to  two  hundred  thousand  f  and  Nero  sus- 
pended the  donation  altogether.^  The  quantity  to  be  distributed 
to  individuals'*  and  the  rates  at  which  sales  were  made  from  the 
public  granaries,  were  fixed  by  the  prefect  ;^  and  the  latter  some- 
times wantonly  advanced  for  the  purpose  of  causing  distress  and 
discontent.  Dionysius  Papirius,  the  prefect  under  Commodus, 
raised  the  rates  in  a  time  of  famine,  in  order  to  inflame  the  peo- 
ple against  Oleander  the  chamberlain  and  prefect  of  the  army 
and  a  monopolist.^ 

These  exactions  were  so  enormous,  and  often  so  lawless  and 
wanton,  as  to  reduce  great  numbers  from  riches  and  competence 
to  poverty.  Caracalla  is  represented  as  animated  by  a  furious 
passion  to  wrest  their  possessions  from  every  class  of  citizens, 
and  reduce  them  to  ruin.  He  frequently  seized  the  produce  of 
their  farms,  and  the  provisions  collected  for  their  families,  or 
compelled  them  to  purchase  grain,  wine,  and  other  articles,  at 
great  expense,  and  without  remuneration,  and  gave  them  to  his 
troops,  or  sold  them  to  raise  money.  He  often  exacted  large 
donatives  from  ordinary  citizens  as  well  as  from  the  rich.  He 
renewed  all  the  impositions  that  had  been  remitted  by  his  prede- 
cessors, advanced  the  most  oppressive,  the  tax  on  inheritances, 
from  a  twentieth  to  a  tenth,  and  by  extending  the  gift  of  citizen- 
ship to  all  provincials,  subjected  the  whole  population  to  the  pe- 
culiar burdens  annexed  to  that  privilege.     When  about  to  return 

■  Dio.  Cass.  Hist.  Rom.  lib.  liv.  c.  1,  lib.  Iv.  c.  31.  Taciti  Aniial.  lib.  i.  c .  7,  lib.  xv.  c. 
39.     Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xiv.  tit.  xv.  xvi. 
""  Dio.  Cass.  Hist.  Rom.  lib.  Iv.  c.  10. 
=•  Dio.  Cass.  Hist.  Rom.  lib.  Ixii.  c.  18. 

*  Dio.  Cass.  H.  Rom.  lib.  Iv.  c.  26. 

*  That  the  people  of  Rome  may  not  be  served  with  bad  bread,  let  the  measurers 
and  bargemen  be  compelled  to  sell  to  the  bakere  at  low  prices  only  two  hundred 
thousand  measures  of  pure  and  sound  grain.  Ne  pessimus  panis  Populi  Romani  usi- 
bus  ministretur  sola  ducentena  millia  modiorum  frumenti,  integri  ailque  intemerati, 
juxta  priscum  morem,  mensores  et  caudicarii  levioribus  pretiis  pistoribus  venundare 
cogantur. — Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xiv.  tit.  xv.  1.  1.  The  other  grain  required  by  the 
bakers  being  furnished  gratuitously  from  the  public  magazines,  they  had  no  motive 
to  adulterate  their  bread  from  an  advance  of  price  iu  the  market. 

*  Dio.  Cass.  Hist-  Rom.  lib.  Ixxii.  c.  13. 


THE  THIRD  SEAL.  109 

from  the  camp,  or  from  distant  cities  to  the  capital,  he  compelled 
the  citizens  to  waste  vast  sums  in  the  erection  of  numerous  struc- 
tures along  the  line  of  his  progress  for  his  repose,  and  amphi- 
theatres and  circuses  wherever  he  wintered,  or  proposed  to  win- 
ter, which  were  left  to  dilapidation,  and  seemed  designed  for  little 
else  than  to  wear  out  his  subjects.^ 

The  enormity  and  violence  of  these  exactions  sprung  in  a  de- 
gree from  the  rapid  succession  of  tyrants,  each  one  of  whom  was 
compelled  to  purchase  the  support  of  the  army  by  large  dona- 
tives, and  to  satiate  the  avarice  of  a  vast  train  of  subordinates  ;^ 
and  continued  through  a  series  of  years,  wasted  the  wealth  of  the 
capital  and  the  provinces,  and  intercepted  and  discouraged  agri- 
culture to  such  a  degree,  as  at  length  to  give  birth  in  the  reigns 
of  Valerian  and  Gallienus  to  a  severe  scarcity,  and  at  a  later  pe- 
riod to  depopulation  through  wide  regions.^ 

The  horseman  of  this  seal,  then,  as  well  as  his  predecessors, 
is  a  Roman  emperor  or  usurper,  and  is  Caracalla  doubtless,  who 
commenced  a  system  of  excessive  taxation,  and  was  followed  by 
a  long  train  of  similar  oppressors.  Under  the  second  seal  those 
tyrants  were  exhibited  in  their  relations  to  each  other  as  compe- 
titors for  the  throne,  conspiring  to  acquire,  or  endeavoring  to 
retain  it,  taking  peace  from  the  earth,  and  slaughtering  each 
other  in  the  contest.  In  this  they  are  exhibited  in  their  relations 
to  the  people  as  oppressors,  employing  their  vast  powers  to 
wrench  from  those  whom  it  was  their  business  to  protect  and 
foster,  their  possessions  and  means  of  subsistence,  and  reduce 
them  to  poverty  and  famine. 

The  symbol  being  thus  drawn  from  civil  life,  to  what  other 
department  of  society  are  we  to  look  for  a  class  and  succession 
of  official  persons  exerting  an  analogous  agency  ?  Not  certainly 
to  the  idolatrous  or  philosophic  world.  The  priests  and  specu- 
jatists  of  those  classes  never  subjected  their  followers  to  a  fam- 
ine of  their  doctrines  ;  nor  had  they,  could  it  have  been  regarded 
as  a  calamity,  or  entitled  to  an  introduction  into  the  prophecy. 
It  is  to  the  church,  the  only  resembling  society,  indisputably 
therefore  that  the  actors  denoted  by  the  symbol  belong. 

•  Dio  Cass.  Hist.  Rom.  lib.  Ixxvii.  c.  9,  10. 

"  In  Uie  seventy-two  years  from  Septimius  Severus  to  Diocletian,  twenty-six 
held  the  sceptre.  The  number  of  unsuccessful  aspirants,  many  of  whom,  followed 
by  armies,  wasted  the  fields,  exacted  contributions  from  the  cities,  and  preyed  on 
the  helpless  population  in  all  the  usual  forms  of  tyranny,  was  far  greater. 

'  Desererentur  agri,  et  culturaj  verterentur  in  silvam.  The  fields  were  de- 
serted, and  scenes  of  cultivation  turned  into  forest.  Lactantii,  de  Mort.  Persecut. 
c.  7.     Gibbon's  Hist.  Decl.  and  Fall,  chap.  x. 


110  THE  THIRD  SEAL. 

What  agency,  then,  of  the  ministers  of  that  spiritual  kingdom 
can  this  misrule  of  emperors  and  usurpers  appropriately  repre- 
sent ?  What  is  it  in  those  whose  ofiice  it  is  to  feed  the  flock 
of  God,  to  subject  it  to  a  famine,  analogous  to  that  to  whicli  the 
population  of  the  empire  was  reduced  by  tyrannous  and  wanton 
exaction  ?  To  withdraw  from  them  the  supports  of  spiritual 
life  ;  that  knowledge  of  God,  of  themselves  as  needing  redemp- 
tion, and  of  the  method  of  salvation,  to  which  they  were  entitled, 
and  which  are  requisite  to  a  vigorous  piety  ; — to  obstruct  them 
in  its  cultivation,  and  render  their  endeavors  after  sanctificalion 
fruitless.  And  this  perversion  of  their  office  was  the  most  con- 
spicuous characteristic  of  the  agency  of  the  ministers  of  the 
church,  from  the  close  of  the  second  century  to  the  second  quar- 
ter of  the  fourth. 

I.  They  discontinued,  in  a  large  degree,  during  that  space,  to 
preach  the  great  truths  of  the  gospel  in  their  simplicity.  There 
is  no  clear  and  emphatic  exposition  in  any  of  the  writers  whose 
works  have  come  down  to  us,  from  Clemens  Alexandrinus  to 
Athanasius,  of  the  rights  of  God  on  which  his  government  is 
founded,  of  the  sanctity  of  his  law,  of  the  alienation  and  guilt 
of  men,  and  need  of  such  a  redemption  as  is  revealed  in  the  gos- 
pel, of  Christ's  death  as  a  vindication  of  the  rights  of  God  and 
an  expiation  for  sin,  of  the  nature  and  necessity  of  faith  in  him, 
of  regeneration  by  the  Spirit  through  the  apprehension  of  the 
truths  of  the  gospel,  or  of  justification  by  faith  in  the  Redeemer. 
They  neither  preached  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified  by  simply 
proclaiming  his  death  on  behalf  of  men,  and  the  proffer  of  par- 
don to  those  who  accepted  him  by  trust  in  his  blood,  and  calling 
on  men  to  repent  and  believe,  without  entering  into  any  formal 
exposition  of  the  great  principles  on  which  the  work  of  Christ 
proceeds  ;  nor  did  they  preach  him  by  unfolding  and  enforcing 
those  principles.  They  thus,  in  a  most  emphatic  sense,  with- 
held from  their  people  the  bread  of  life  ;  reducing  those  who 
had  already  become  the  children  of  God  to  a  famine  of  knowl- 
edge ;  and  leaving  others,  and  the  young  especially,  without  any 
thorough  initiation  into  those  great  truths,  an  acquaintance  with 
which  is  essential  to  a  just  sense  of  sin,  a  perception  of  the  ne- 
cessity of  a  gratuitous  salvation,  and  a  reception  of  Christ  as  a 
sacrifice  and  juslifier.  In  their  discussions,  with  idolaters  espe- 
cially, the  peculiarities  of  the  work  of  Christ  were  studiously 
kept  out  of'  sight,  the  Scriptures  were  neglected,  and  Chris- 
tianity exhibited   as  little  else  than  a  system  of  morals.^     Of 

'  Clemens  Alexandrinus  represents  himself  as  intentionally  concealing  tlie  great 


THE  THIRD  SEAL.  Ill 

the  extent  to  which  the  disregard  and  depreciation  of  the 
word  of  God  prevailed,  the  works  of  Minutius  FeHx,  Arnobius, 
and  Laclantius,  may  be  taken  as  examples.  One  would  scarce- 
ly suspect,  from  a  large  part  of  the  first  six  books  of  the  Insti- 
tutes of  Laclantius,  that  the  church  had  an  authentic  revelation 
from  God,  in  which  all  the  great  truths  of  his  government,  of  our 
condition,  of  the  method  of  salvation,  and  of  the  retributions  that 
are  to  follow  this  life,  are  made  known,  and  claim  a  reception 
from  all.  He  intentionally,  indeed,  neglected  the  Scriptures,  and 
relied  for  the  convei'sion  of  the  world  on  the  testimony  of  men, 
the  pretended  prophecies  of  the  sibyls,  and  the  doctrines  of  phi- 
losophy.^ 

11.  Besides  this  studied  neglect  of  the  Scriptures,  the  mystic 
and  allegorical  methods  of  interpretation  inti'oduced  by  Clemens 
Alexandrinus  and  Origen,  contributed  much  to  divert  the  atten- 
tion of  the  church  from  their  great  truths,  and  obstruct  the  knowl- 
edge of  them.  Men  were  taught  to  disregard  and  set  aside  their 
natural  and  obvious  meanings,  and  search  for  such  as  were  dis- 
tant, fanciful,  and  often  absurd.  All  histories  were  converted 
into  fables  and  parables ;  all  laws,  doctrines,  and  promises,  into 
types  ;  and  the  whole  volume  of  revelation  thus  made  a  chaos  of 
shadows,  from  which  imagination  was  allowed  to  shape  what- 
ever forms  it  pleased.^ 

elements  of  the  truth  in  his  Stromata,  from  the  apprehension  that  to  teach  them 
openly,  would  be  to  expose  them  to  abuse  and  contradiction  by  unprincipled  op- 
ponents.    Strom,  lib.  i.  p.  279. 

'  Instil,  lib.  V.  c.  4.  lib.  vii.  c.  25,  27. 

^  Clemens  Alexandrinus  held  that  besides  the  literal  import,  a  mystical  meaning 
lies  couched  under  the  language  of  the  Scriptures,  which  is  to  be  elicited  only  by 
interpretation,  and  wished  his  readers  to  regard  his  Stromata  as  written  in  that 
manner  with  a  double  sense.  "  Mysteries  are  taught  mystically,  so  that  the  lan- 
guage in  which  they  are  expressed  may  denote  them,  and  yet  not  so  much  to  the 
ear  as  to  the  understanding."     Strom,  lib.  i.  p.  275. 

Origen  represented  the  Scriptures  as  involving  a  threefold  sense,  and  regarded 
the  most  obvious  as  not  only  the  least  in  value,  but  often  deceptive  and  dangerous, 
and  the  occasion  of  all  the  errors  into  which  interpreters  had  fallen.  "  A  three- 
fold explication  should  be  given  of  the  meaning  of  the  sacred  word,  that  he  who 
is  most  simple  may  be  edified  by  its  flesh  or  its  obvious  sense,  he  who  has  made 
some  progress  by  its  soul,  but  he  who  is  perfect,  like  those  of  whom  the  apostle 
speaks,  by  the  wisdom  of  God,  or  its  spirit ;  for  as  man  consists  of  body,  soul,  and 
spirit,  so  the  Scriptures,  in  order  that  tiiey  may  minister  to  the  salvation  of  men, 
are  constituted  with  a  triple  meaning."     De  Princip.  lib.  iv.  c.  9. 

lie  held  that  thcie  are  mysteries  veiled' beneath  tiie  narratives  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, which  the  most  acute  are  unable  fully  to  unfold.  "  Thai  there  are  some 
mystical  dispensations  indicated  in  the  Scriptures,  all,  even  the  most  simple,  who 
receive  them  believe  ;  but  what  they  are,  the  intelligent  and  modest  acknowledge 
they  do  not  know.  Should  any  one,  for  example,  inquire  in  regard  to  Lot  and  his 
daughters,  Abraham's  two  wives,  the  two  sisters  whom  Jacob  married,  or  his  two 


112  THE  THIRD  SEAL. 

III.  The  Scriptures  were  further  depreciated  and  set  aside  by 
the  fabrication  and  countenance  of  gospels  and  other  supposititious 
works  in  the  name  of  the  apostles  and  their  cotemporaries,  mark- 
ed by  extreme  meanness  of  conception,  abounding  with  gross 
errors,  and  adapted  to  lead  to  low  and  false  apprehensions  of  the 
government  of  God,  the  work  of  redemption,  and  the  nature  of 
piety.' 

IV.  The  attempts  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  Origen,  and  oth- 
ers, to  accommodate  the  facts  and  truths  of  revelation  to  the 
doctrines  of  philosophy,  led  not  only  to  a  formal  neglect  of  them, 
but  still  more  to  exhibitions  which  misrepresented  their  nature. 
They  were  often  treated  as  substantially  the  same,  their  dogmas 
as  alike  authoritative,  and  salvation  as  attainable  by  the  one  as 
well  as  the  other.^     The  attempt  moreover  to  incorporate  them, 

maids,  no  other  answer  can  be  given  than  that  they  are  mysteries  that  are  incom- 
prehensible by  us."     De  Princip.  lib.  iv.  c.  11. 

He  proceeds  to  exemplify  his  theory  of  a  secondary  and  a  spiritual  meaning, 
and  represents  that  God  chose  to  veil  the  knowledge  which  he  reveals  of  himself 
and  his  administration,  under  visible  symbols,  such  as  the  creation  of  the  world 
and  of  man,  the  obedience  of  tiie  righteous  and  the  sins  of  the  wicked,  that  none 
but  the  studious  and  wise  may  comprehend  them  ;  that  deep  mysteries  lie  envel- 
oped in  the  Old  Testament  in  the  histories  of  the  wars  of  the  Israelites  and  others, 
ill  which  the  vanquished  and  victors  are  commemorated ;  and  finally,  that  the 
written  law  is  rather  a  mere  prophecy  than  an  expression  of  the  truth  itself,  and 
is  to  be  divested  of  the  integumeuts  in  which  it  is  wrapped,  in  order  to  a  full  dis- 
covery of  its  meaning.     De  Princip.  lib.  iv.  c.  14. 

'  Irenasus  represents  the  multitude  of  books  that  were  forged  and  circulated 
to  excite  the  wonder  of  the  unlettered  as  innumerable.  Contra  Hcereses,  lib.  i. 
c.  17.  Eusebius  also  speaks  of  them  as  numerous,  unapostolic  in  style,  and  ab- 
surd and  impious  in  their  sentiments.  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  iii.  c.  25.  That  they  yet  liad 
a  vast  influence,  and  on  the  church,  is  apparent  from  the  complaints  of  IrenjEus 
and  other  fathers,  and  the  fact  that  several  of  them,  as  the  false  gospels  and 
acts,  the  Sibylline  Verses,  the  Recognitions  of  Clemens,  the  Apostolical  Canons 
and  Constitutions,  and  the  letters  ascribed  to  Ignatius,  were  regarded  as  of  an- 
thority,  and  quoted  by  men  of  learning  and  eminence  for  many  ages.  See  Jones 
on  the  Canon.  Casaub.  Exercit.  in  App.  Baron,  no.  x.  p.  65.  Moshemii  Dissert.de 
Causis  Suppos.  Librorum. 

*  Clemens  Alexandrinus  devoted  a  large  part  of  the  first  and  sixth  books  of  his 
Stromata,  to  the  commendation  of  the  Greek  philosophy  ;  representing  a  knowl- 
edge of  it  as  not  only  useful,  but  almost  indispensable  to  an  understanding  of  the 
gospel,  and  exhibiting  it  as  a  revelation  from  God  as  well  as  the  Scriptures,  and  a 
Idw  and  rule  of  justification  to  the  Gentiles,  as  the  Old  Testament  was  to  the  Is- 
raelites. "  We  cannot  err  in  saying  that  all  things  that  are  necessary  and  useful 
to  life  come  from  God,  and  especially  that  tlie  philosophy  given  to  the  Greeks  as 
a  peculiar  covenant,  is  the  foundation  of  that  of  Christ." — Stromat.  lib.  vi.  p.  (548. 
"  'i'he  law  to  the  Jews,  but  philosophy  to  the  Greeks  until  the  advent  of  Christ, 
when  all  were  called  into  the  church  by  the  teaching  of  faith." — Strom,  lib.  vi. 
p.  650.  "  Before  the  advent  of  Christ,  philosophy  was  necessary  to  the  Greeks 
in  order  to  justification,  and  still  subserves  the  piety  of  those  who  found  their  faith 
on  demonstration  ;  for  it  led  the  Gentiles  to  Christ  as  the  law  did  the  Hebrews, 
and  prepared  the  way  for  that  which  is  perfected  under  him." — Stromal,  lib.  i.  p. 


THE  THIRD  SEAL.  113 

led  to  the  discussion  of  numerous  questions  that  have  little  con- 
nection with  theoretical  or  practical  religion,  and  drew  the  atten- 
tion of  the  church  from  realities  to  shadows  ;  from  the  wisdom 
of  God  to  the  folly  of  men. 

V.  Not  only  were  vain  and  dangerous  speculations  thus  ob- 
truded into  theology,  but  conceptions  were  formed  also  of  the 
sacraments  of  the  gospel,  that  were  false  and  pernicious.  Such 
were  the  views  that  were  entertained  of  baptism. 

It  was  held  as  early  as  the  age  of  Justin  Martyr  that  remis- 
sion of  sins  was  conferred  in  baptism  on  those  who  were  already 
regenerated :  "  We  will  also  state  how  having  been  renewed 
through  Christ,  we  consecrate  ourselves  to  God.  They  who 
are  persuaded  of  the  truth  of  what  we  teach  and  relate,  receive 
it  with  faith,  and  promise  as  far  as  they  are  able,  to  live  accord- 
ingly, are  taught  fasting  to  ask  of  God  forgiveness  of  their  former 
sins,  and  we  unite  with  them  in  those  acts.  Then  they  are  led 
by  us  where  there  is  water,  and  begotten  again  with  the  new 
generation  with  which  we  were  ourselves  rebegotten  ;  for  this 
washing  with  water  is  done  in  the  name  of  God  the  Father  of  all, 
and  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  for 
Christ  said.  Except  ye  be  begotten  again,  ye  cannot  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."^  By  the  new  generation  by  water  he 
means,  not  the  renovation  of  the  mind  which  is  the  work  of  the 
Spirit,  but  simply  the  introduction  of  one  already  renewed  into  the 
church  by  baptism,  entrance  on  a  new  life  as  a  subject  of  Christ, 
and  attainment  thereby  of  the  forgiveness  of  all  former  sins. 
"  The  name  of  the  Father  of  all  is  pronounced  over  him  who 
desires  to  be  rebegotten  and  repents  of  his  sins,  in  order  to  his 
obtaining  remission  of  his  former  offences."^  "  And  this  wash- 
ing is  called  illumination,  inasmuch  as  they  are  enhghtened  who 
have  learned  these  things."^  It  was  regarded  as  a  symbol  or 
expression  of  the  knowledge  and  faith  which  they  professed. 

282.  Origen,  the  disciple  of  Clemens,  adopted  this  theory,  and  followed  it  in  his 
speculations,  treating  the  doctrines  of  the  Greek  philosophy  as  a  key  to  the  histo- 
ries and  doctrines  of  the  Scriptures,  and  employing  them  to  solve  the  mysteries 
of  the  divine  administration.  He  introduced  accordingly  into  his  theology  a 
great  number  of  false,  absurd,  and  impious  conjectures  and  dogmas,  which  ob- 
scured, adulterated,  or  set  aside  the  truth,  and  formed  emphatically  another  gospel ; 
and  he  was  followed  by  a  vast  crowd  of  disciples  and  imitators  for  several  ages. 
See  Moshemii  de  rebus  Christ  ante  Constant,  sec.  iii.  pp.  604-629.  Dupin,  Biblioth. 
Nova,  tom.  i.  pp.  190-224.  Thus  within  a  little  more  than  a  century  of  the 
death  of  the  last  apostle,  did  the  ministers  of  the  church  begin  to  neglect  and 
depreciate  the  Scriptures,  and  adopt  that  wisdom  by  which  the  world  knew  not 
God,  as  a  more  efficacious  instrument  of  leading  them  to  salvation. 

'  Justini  Mart.  Apolog.  i.  c.  61,  pp.  256-258.  "  Ibid.  c.  61,  p.  258. 

»  Ibid.  c.  61,  p.  260. 

15 


114  THE  THIRD  SEAL. 

"  After  we  have  thus  washed  him  who  has  beheved  and  assented 
to  our  faith,  we  conduct  him  to  the  assembly  of  the  brethren, 
and  together  offer  fervent  prayer  for  ourselves  and  him  who  has 
been  enlightened  and  all  others  wherever  they  are,  that  having 
learned  the  truth  we  may  have  the  blessedness  to  be  found  in 
our  works,  good  citizens,  and  observers  of  the  commandments, 
so  that  we  may  obtain  eternal  salvation."^ 

Clemens  Alexandrinus  held  that  illuminating  and  sanctifying 
influences  of  the  Spirit  were  conferred  in  the  baptism  of  the  be- 
liever, as  well  as  remission  of  sins.  "  Immediately  therefore 
after  having  been  rebegotten,  we  obtain  that  perfection  after 
which  we  earnestly  endeavor.  For  we  are  illuminated,  that  is, 
with  the  knowledge  of  God."^  "  Being  baptized  we  are  en- 
lightened ;  being  enlightened  we  are  adopted  as  sons  ;  being 
adopted  we  are  perfected  ;  and  being  perfected  we  are  made  im- 
mortal. He  says,  '  I  said  ye  are  gods,  and  all  the  sons  of  the 
Most  High.'  This  work  is  variously  denominated  grace,  illu- 
mination, perfection,  and  the  bath  ;  the  bath  by  which  sins  are 
washed  away,  grace  by  which  the  penalties  of  sin  are  removed, 
illumination  by  which  we  obtain  the  holy  and  saving  light — that 
is,  by  which  we  see  clearly  that  which  is  divine  ;  and  finally  it  is 
denominated  perfection,  inasmuch  as  it  has  nothing  wanting,  for 
what  does  he  lack  who  knows  God  ?"^  It  is  in  this  relation  ac- 
cordingly doubtless,  as  attended  with  enlightening  and  sanctify- 
ing influences,  that  it  is  spoken  of  in  the  fable  of  John  and  the 
robber  as  a  perfect  protection  against  sin.'* 

TertuUian  also  represents  the  sanctifying  influences  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  as  well  as  the  remission  of  sins,  as  conferred  in 
baptism.  He  exhibits  the  water  as  imbued  with  a  miraculous 
power  by  the  descent  of  the  Spirit  into  it  at  its  consecration,  in 
virtue  of  which,  in  its  application  in  the  rite,  it  exerted  a  purify- 
ing influence  on  the  soul,  like  that  of  water  on  the  body.  "  Once 
we  enter  the  bath,  once  sins  are  washed  away,  so  that  it  is  not 
necessary  to  repeat  the  rite."^  "  All  waters  acquire  by  the  invo- 
cation of  God  the  sacramental  virtue  of  sanctification  ;  for  the 
Spirit  immediately  descends  from  heaven,  rests  on  them,  and 
sanctifies  them  by  itself,  and  being  thus  sanctified  by  union  with 
the  Spirit,  they  acquire  the  power  of  sanctification  ....  For  as  the 
waters  of  Bethesda  were  imbued  with  a  medicinal  virtue  by  the 

'  Justini  Mart.  Apol.  i.,  c.  65,  p.  266.  '  Ptedagog.  lib.  1.  c.  6,  p.  92. 

•  Pffidagog.  lib.  i.  c.  6,  p.  93.  *  Clem.  Aiexand.  lib.  quis  dives,  c.  42. 

'  Semel  ergo  lavacrum  inimus,  semel  delicta  diluuutur,  quia  ea  iterari  non  opor« 
tet. — De  baptismo,  c.  15. 


THE  TiUHD  SEAL  115 

intervention  of  the  angel,  so  the  Spirit  is  diffused  through  the 
waters  of  baptism,  and  the  person  to  whom  they  are  apphed,  is 
spiritually  purified  by  them."^  That  he  did  not  regard  it  as  re- 
generation, but  as  a  rite  by  which  those  who  had  already  believed 
were  to  be  admitted  to  the  church,  and  made  partakers  of  gifts 
wliich  were  bestowed  on  those  only  who  made  a  profession  of 
their  faith,  is  indicated  by  the  caution  which  he  teaches  should 
be  used  in  its  administration.^ 

Origen  likewise  regarded  the  remission  of  sins  and  the  sancti- 
fying influences  of  the  Spirit,  as  given  in  baptism  to  those  who 
were  prepared  by  repentance  to  receive  it,  but  not  to  others. 
"  Come,  ye  catechumen,  repent  that  ye  may  obtain  baptism  to 
the  remission  of  sins.  He  receives  baptism  to  the  remission  of 
sins,  who  ceases  to  sin.  But  if  any  one  comes  to  the  baptistery 
sinning,  he  does  not  obtain  remission.  Come  not  to  baptism 
therefore  I  pray  you  without  wariness,  and  a  diligent  scrutiny, 
but  first  exhibit  the  fruits  that  become  repentance."-*  "  All  are  not 
laved  unto  salvation.  Prepare  yourselves  while  catechumen  that 
ye  may  come  to  the  baptistery  and  be  washed  to  salvation  ;  and 
not  like  those  who  are  washed,  but  not  to  salvation ;  receiving 
the  water,  but  not  the  Spirit.  He  who  is  laved  to  salvation,  re- 
ceives not  only  the  water  but  the  Holy  Spirit."* 

But  by  a  large  part  of  the  bishops  of  that  and  the  following 
age,  it  was  not  only  held  that  sanctifying  influences  and  the  re- 
mission of  sins  were  conferred  in  baptism  whenever  rightly 
administered  and  received,  but  the  still  more  erroneous  and  dan- 
gerous doctrine  that  it  is  a  spiritually  regenerating  rite,  and  its 
mere  reception  thence  made  an  absolute  ground  of  reliance  for 

'  Igitur  omnes  aquae  de  pristina  originis  praerogativa  sacramentum  sanctifica- 
tionis  consequuntur  invocato  deo.  Supervenit  eiiim  statim  spiritus  de  coelis  et  aquis 
superest,  sanctificans  eas  de  semetipso,  et  ita  sanctificatae  vim  sanctificandi  com- 
bibunt.. . .  Igitur medicatis  quodammodo  aquis  per  angeli  interventum,  et  spiritus  in 
aquis  corporaliter  diluitur,  et  caro  in  eisdem  spiritaliter  mundatur. — De  baptismo,  c.  4. 

"  It  was  not  rashly  to  be  conferred  on  whoever  desired  to  receive  it.  Tlie  reason 
that  the  Eunuch  was  immediately  baptized  by  Philip  was,  that  he  gave  evidence 
of  a  true  faith,  and  Paul  was  not  baptized  until  it  had  been  revealed  that  he  was 
a  chosen  vessel.  Discretion  was  therefore  to  be  used  in  its  administration,  and  it 
was  judicious  to  delay  it  according  to  the  condition,  disposition,  and  age  of  each 
person,  and  especially  the  young.  Ceterum  baptismum  non  temere  credendum 
esse  sciunt,  quorum  officium  est. — Itaque  pro  cujusque  personae  conditione  ac  dis- 
positlone,  etiam  aetate  cunctatio  baptismi  utilior  est,  praecipue  tamen  circa  parvu- 
los. — De  baptismo,  c.  18. 

'  Venite  catechumeni,  agite  pcenitentiam,  ut  in  remissionem  peccatorum  bap- 
tisma  consequamini.  In  remissionem  peccatorum  ille  accipit  baptisma  qui  peccare 
desistit.  Si  quis  enim  peccans  ad  lavacrum  venit,  ei  non  fit  remissio  peccatorum 
Homil.  xxi.  in  Lucam.  torn.  iii.  p.  957. 

*  Homil.  vi.  in  Ezek.  torn.  iii.  p.  378. 


116  THE  THIRD  SEAL. 

salvation.  Thus  Cyprian,  "  Inasmuch  as  the  second  birth  in 
which  we  are  born  unto  Christ  through  the  bath  of  regeneration 
is  spiritual,  it  were  incongruous  to  say  that  any  one  may  be 
spiritually  born  among  heretics,  with  wliom  it  is  acknowledged 
the  Spirit  is  not.  For  water  alone  cannot  cleanse  away  sin  and 
sanctify  the  man,  unless  it  have  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  must  of 
necessity  therefore  be  conceded  that  the  Spirit  is  there,  where  it 
is  asserted  that  baptism  is,  or  else  that  there  is  no  baptism  where 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  not ;  inasmuch  as  baptism  is  not  possible 
without  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  what  is  it  to  assert  and  contend 
that  they  may  be  sons  of  God,  who  are  not  born  in  the  church  ? 
For  baptism  is  that  by  which  the  old  man  dies  and  the  new  is 
born,  manifestly  from  the  apostle's  declaration,  '  he  saves  us 
through  the  bath  of  regeneration.'  But  if  regeneration  is  by  the 
bath,  that  is  by  baptism,  how  is  it  possible  that  a  sect  that  is  not 
the  spouse  of  Christ,  can  bear  sons  to  God  through  Christ  ?  For 
it  is  the  church  alone  that  is  united  to  Christ  that  can  spiritually 
bear  sons,  as  the  same  apostle  teaches  in  the  saying,  Christ  loved 
the  church  and  gave  himself  for  it,  that  he  might  sanctify  it,  pu- 
rifying it  in  the  bath  of  water. "^ 

The  same  views  were  held  also  by  Firmilian,  bishop  of  Caesa- 
rea  Cappadocia  :  "  Let  us  not  forget  that  according  to  the  Song  of 
songs,  the  church  is  a  garden  enclosed,  a  sealed  fountain,  a  para- 
dise of  apples.  But  how  can  they  who  have  never  entered  that 
garden,  nor  seen  the  paradise  planted  by  the  Creator,  give  any 
one  from  the  fountain  which  is  enclosed  in  it  and  sealed  with 
God's  seal  the  living  water  of  saving  baptism  ?  Moreover,  as 
Noah's  ark  which  saved  those  only  who  were  within  it,  all  who 
were  without  being  destroyed,  was  a  mere  symbol  of  the  church 
of  Christ,  we  are  taught  thereby  to  inculcate  the  unity  of  the 
church,  as  Peter  also  indicates  in  saying,  '  in  like  manner  bap- 
tism saves  us' — showing  thereby  as  they  who  were  not  with 
Noah  in  the  ark,  not  only  were  not  purified  and  saved  by  the 
water,  but  instantly  perished  in  the  deluge,  so  also  now  whoever 
are  not  in  the  church  with  Christ,  will  perish  without,  unless 
they  are  turned  to  the  sole  and  saving  bath  of  the  church  through 
penitence."^ 

He  ascribes  the  same  view  also  to  Stephen,  the  bishop  of 

'  Baptisma  enim  esse,  in  quo  homo  vetus  moritur,  et  novus  nascitur,  manifestat 
et  probat  beatus  apostolus  dicens  ;  Servavit  nos  per  lavacrum  regenerationis.  Si 
autem  in  lavacro,  id  est  in  baptismo  est  regeneratio,  quomodo  generari  filios  deo 
haeresis  per  Christum  potest,  quae  Christi  sponsa  non  est.  Ecclesia  est  enim  sola, 
quffi  Christo  conjuncta  et  adunata  spiritaliter  filios  generat. — Epist.  74,  c.  5,  6. 

"  Cypriani  Epist.  75,  c.  15. 


THE  THIRD  SEAL.  117 

Rome.  "  Stephen,  who  boasts  that  he  has  succeeded  to  the 
chair  of  Peter,  is  not  animated  by  any  zeal  against  the  heretics, 
but  concedes  to  them  not  only  a  moderate  but  the  greatest  powers 
of  grace,  saying  and  asseverating  that  they  by  the  sacrament  of 
baptism  wash  away  the  pollution  of  the  old  man,  remit  all  former 
deadly  sins,  make  sons  of  God  by  a  celestial  birth,  and  renew 
them  unto  eternal  life  by  the  sanctification  of  the  divine  bath. 
After  ascribing  these  great  and  celestial  prerogatives  of  the  church 
to  heretics,  what  else  can  he  do  than  to  communicate  with  those 
to  whom  he  attributes  such  grace  ?"^ 

The  rite  being  thus  exalted  from  its  original  design  as  a  pro- 
fession of  faith  in  Christ  and  initiation  into  the  church,  into  a  re- 
generative office  by  which  the  subject  was  created  a  spiritual 
child  of  God,  endowed  with  sanctifying  influences  and  full  for- 
giveness ;  its  reception  was  treated  as  involving  all  that  was  for 
the  time  requisite  to  salvation  ;  a  mere  sacramental  religion  sub- 
stituted in  the  place  of  repentance,  faith,  love,  adoration,  and  the 
other  affections  which  are  required  by  the  gospel  ;  and  the  church 
thus  taught  to  seek  the  blessings  of  life  in  a  false  direction  ;  to 
look  to  the  minister  of  the  church  instead  of  the  Spirit  of  God  for 
the  grace  of  renovation  ;  to  submit  to  baptism  instead  of  repent- 
ing, believing,  loving,  adoring,  and  obeying ;  and  in  place  of  the 
fruits  of  the  Spirit,  to  regard  the  mere  reception  of  that  rite  as  a 
proof  of  piety  and  preparation  for  heaven,  and  made  so  abso- 
lutely to  rely  on  it,  that  it  became  customary  to  postpone  it  till 
the  last  hour,  in  order  to  secure  by  it  as  far  as  possible  a  full  re- 
mission of  sins." 

This  doctrine  soon  gaining  a  general  prevalence,  and  becom- 
ing invested  with  a  factitious  importance  by  the  contests  respect- 
ing the  rebaptism  of  heretics,  and  its  adaptation  to  exalt  the  power 
of  the  bishops,^  it  drew  a  larger  share  of  attention  for  a  long  pe- 
riod  than  any  other,  was   more   zealously  inculcated, .  and  was 

'  Cypriani  Epist.  75,  c.  17. 

'  Coiistantiiie  was  not  baptized  till  liis  last  illness.  Euseb.  de  Vita,  lib.  iv.  c.  Gl, 
62.  Nor  Constantius  till  about  to  engage,  a  few  days  before  his  death,  in  a  war 
with  Julian.     Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  c.  57. 

'  This  doctrine  was  a  principal  ground  on  which  the  bishops  commenced  and 
raised  the  towering  structure  of  their  power  over  the  church.  To  convince  the  flock 
that  to  be  baptized  by  a  minister  of  the  true  church  was  to  be  renewed  and  consti- 
tuted an  heir  of  heaven,  that  that  was  the  only  method  of  regeneration  and  pardon, 
that  bishops  alone  had  power  to  confer  that  baptism,  or  commission  others  to  confer 
it,  and  that  it  could  be  administered  to  none  but  those  who  placed  themselves  under 
their  jurisdiction  and  yielded  implicit  subjection  to  their  teachings  and  commands, 
was  to  lay  the  foundation  for  the  most  superstitious  and  abject  dependence  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  most  lawless  and  merciless  tyranny  on  the  other.  It  was  through 


118  THE  THIRD  SEAL. 

thence  made  a  most  efficient  means  of  blighting  the  church  with 
a  spiritual  famine. 

VI.  In  hke  manner  the  eucharist  began  at  this  period  to  be  re- 
garded as  fraught  with  a  saving  virtue,  its  reception  deemed  an 
adequate  preparation  for  death,  and  a  presumptuous  trust  placed 
in  it  that  naturally  led  to  a  neglect  of  repentance,  faith,  and  love, 
and  reconciled  a  life  of  irreligion,  debasement,  and  exacerbated 
rebellion,  with  a  confident  expectation  of  forgiveness  and  salva- 
tion. Thus  Cyprian  recommended  the  gift  of  the  eucharist  to 
fortify  the  church  against  the  danger  of  defection,  and  strengthen 
it  to  meet  death  if  necessary  for  the  sake  of  Christ.  "  But  now 
peace  is  necessary  not  to  the  weak  but  the  strong,  and  fellowship 
is  to  be  granted  by  us  not  to  the  dying  but  to  the  living,  that  we  may 
not  leave  those  unarmed  and  naked  whom  we  excite  and  urge  to 
the  battle,  but  fortify  them  with  the  protection  of  the  blood  and 
body  of  Christ ;  and  as  the  eucharist  is  instituted  that  it  may  be 
a  defence  to  the  receivers,  let  us  arm  those  whom  we  wish  to  be 
secured  against  the  adversary  with  the  shield  of  the  Lord's  feast ; 
for  how  can  we  teach  and  excite  them  to  pour  out  their  blood  in 
the  confession  of  Christ's  name,  if  we  deny  them  his  blood  when 
about  to  engage  in  that  conflict  ?  or  how  can  we  make  them  ade- 
quate to  the  cup  of  martyrdom,  if  we  do  not  first  by  the  riglit  of 
fellowship  admit  them  to  drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord  ni  the 
church  ?"  "  He  cannot  be  equal  to  martyrdom  who  is  not  armed 
by  the  church  for  the  battle.  The  mind  faints  which  is  not 
strengthened  and  inflamed  by  the  reception  of  the  eucharist."^ 

In  like  manner,  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  who  flour- 
ished at  the  same  period,  represents  the  eucharist  as  given  at  the 
moment  of  death  to  one  who  had  sacrificed,  and  as  constituting 
by  the  reconciliation  with  the  church  and  remission  of  sins  whicli 
it  involved,  a  preparation  for  heaven."^ 

this  rite  accordingly  that  the  doctrines  of  a  priestly  power  to  regenerate  men,  for- 
give sins,  and  confer  salvation,  of  tlie  impossibility  of  salvation  except  through  the 
offices  of  the  priests,  and  of  the  transmission  from  the  apostles  of  their  powers  and 
prerogatives  to  their  successors,  were  first  broached. 

'  At  vero  nunc  nou  infirmis,  sed  fortibus  pax  necessaria  est,  nee  morientibus  sed 
viventibus  communicatio  a  nobis  danda  est ;  ut  quos  excitamus  et  hortamur  ad  proe- 
lium,  non  inermes  et  nudos  relinquamus,  sed  protectione  sanguinis  et  corporis  Christi 
muniamus,  et  cum  ad  hoc  fiat  eucharistia,  ut  possit  accipientibus  esse  tutela,  quos 
tutos  esse  contra  adversariurn  volumus,  munimento  domiuicm  saturitatis  armemus. 
. . .  Idoneus  esse  nou  potest  ad  martyrium,  qui  ab  ecclesia  non  armatur  ad  proclium,  et 
mens  deficit,  quam  non  recepta  eucharistia  eriget  et  accendit.     Epist.  57,  c.  2,  3. 

''  Sorapion,  an  old  man  who  had  no  other  fault  than  that  he  had  sacrificed  during 
the  persecution,  being  about  to  die,  desired  a  child  who  was  in  attendance  to  call  a 
presbyter  to  fit  him  for  his  departure.  Tlie  presbyter  being  ill,  and  having  been  di- 
rected by  Dionysius  to  show  favor  to  the  dyuig  who  sought  it,  that  they  might  pass 


THE  THIRD  SEAL,  119 

This  misconception  of  its  efficacy  was  soon  carried  so  far,  that 
it  was  given  to  infants,^  administered  in  all  cases  at  the  approach 
of  death  to  those  under  penance,  though  they  became  insensible 
or  delirious,^  and  was  sometimes  even  placed  in  the  lips  of  the 
dead.^  Union  with  the  church  and  the  reception  of  the  conse- 
crated bread  and  wine,  were  thus  again,  like  baptism,  substituted 
in  the  place  of  repentance  and  faith  as  the  conditions  of  accept- 
ance with  God,  and  made  the  ground  of  a  deceptive  reliance. 

VIl.  Another  fatal  step  in  their  downward  progress  was  the 
adoption  of  tlie  Platonic  ideas  of  the  grounds  and  nature  of  sin, 
and  the  modes  and  means  of  sanctification ;  and  the  introduction 
thereby  into  the  church  of  a  false  code  of  virtue,  and  the  substi- 
tution of  dispositions  and  acts  that  involve  no  excellence,  for  the 
fear  and  love  of  God,  the  faith  in  Christ,  and  the  social  affections 
and  agencies  which  are  enjoined  by  the  gospel.  Assuming  that 
the  grounds  of  our  sinning  lie  in  our  corporeal  nature,  and 
thence  that  llie  indulgence  of  the  appetites  and  passions  that  have 
their  foundation  in  it,  is  necessarily  evil,  or  at  least  incompatible 
with  the  higher  degrees  of  piety  ;  they  inferred  that  virtue  must, 
so  far  as  they  are  concerned,  lie,  not  in  their  subordination  to 
law,  but  in  their  absolute  denial  and  extinction.  Hence  these 
disciples  of  Plato  introduced  into  the  church  the  monstrous  doc- 
trines and  discipline  of  fasting,  celibacy,  and  asceticism,  with 
which  it  became  infatuated  and  debased  in  the  third  and  follow- 
ing centuries,*  as  the  great  and  almost  the  only  means  of  sancti- 
fication, and  the  loftiest  modes  of  piety .^  Instead  of  being  in- 
structed to  restrain  their  appetites,  and  yield  to  them  only  in  those 
relations  in  which  God  allows  or  enjoins  their  indulgence,  his 
people  were  taught  to  regard  every  impulse  of  hunger,  thirst,  or 
desire,  however  involuntary  or  irresistible,  as  degrading  and  sin 

from  life  with  a  good  hope,  gave  the  boy  a  fragment  of  the  eucharist,  and  directed 
him  to  dip  it  in  water  and  let  the  drops  fall  into  the  dying  man's  mouth.  The  child 
followed  the  directions,  and  the  old  man  immediately  on  imbibing  the  drops  expiring, 
it  was  deemed  by  Dionysius  that  he  was  preserved  till  that  was  accomplished,  in 
Older  that  he  might  be  released  from  excommunication,  and  his  sins  being  blotted 
out,  be  acknowledged  for  the  good  deeds  he  Jiad  before  done.  Euseb.  Hist.  Eccl. 
lib.  vi.  c  44. 

'  Van  Espen,  de  Eucharist,  c.  ii.  s.  2. 

*  Concil.  Carthag.  c.  76.     Labbei  Concil.  torn.  iii.  p.  957. 

*  Several  councils  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  prohibited  its  administration  to 
the  dead.  "  The  eucharist  should  not  be  given  to  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  for  it  is 
written,  take  ye,  eat,  but  the  bodies  of  the  dead  can  neither  take  nor  eat."  ConciL 
Carthag,     Labbei  Concil.  tom.  iii.  pp.  719,  880. 

*  Near  a  fourth  of  the  works  of  Tertullian  is  devoted  to  these  topics;  and  celi- 
bacy was  approved  and  encouraged  by  Cyprian  and  Origen. 

*  Mosheimii  de  rebus  Christ,  sec.  ii.  pp.  310-312,  sec.  iii.  pp.  658-690. 


120  THE  THIRD  SEAL. 

ful,  and  to  be  opposed  and  suppressed  by  a  stern  and  merciless 
violence.  Marriage,  the  first  social  institution  of  the  Almighty, 
and  the  most  propitious  to  all  the  forms  both  of  virtue  tovv^ards 
men  and  piety  towards  God,  was  denounced  and  calumniated  as 
merely  sensual,  sinful,  and  fit  only  for  the  debasement  of  demons 
and  brutes.*  Thence  thousands  and  myriads  were  induced  to 
withdraw  from  the  spheres  which  God  assigns  for  the  obedience 
he  requires,  to  refuse  and  disown  wholly  all  the  domestic  and  so- 
cial virtues,  and  to  retreat  to  lofty  mountains  and  solitudes  re- 
mote from  their  fellow-men,  and  spend  their  days  in  the  idleness, 
the  ignorance,  and  debasement  of  savages,  struggling  by  star- 
vation, perpetual  vigils,^  self-torture,  and  endeavors  to  suppress 

'  The  celibates  of  the  age  of  Tertullian  and  Cyprian  continued  to  live  in  society 
and  engage  in  the  usual  pursuits  of  life.  The  first  ascetic  who  withdrew  into  soli- 
tude was  Paul  of  Thebais,  who  about  the  year  260  retired  to  a  cave  at  the  foot  of  a 
mountain,  and  there  continued  sixty  years,  unvisited  by  any  one  except  in  a  single 
instance  by  Antony.  Hieron.  Vita  Pauli.  Antony  soon  imitated  his  example  in 
Lower  Egypt,  spent  near  seventy  years  in  solitude,  and  much  of  it  in  a  sepulchre 
on  the  borders  of  the  desert,  and  drawing  a  vast  crowd  to  adopt  the  ascetic  life, 
united  them  in  associations  or  monasteries.  Athanasii  de  Vita  Anton,  op.  torn.  ii.  pp. 
456,  457.  Sozomen  says  of  him :  He  repressed  his  corporeal  appetites  by  voluntary 
inflictions,  and  the  passions  of  his  mind  by  a  lofty  resolution.  His  only  food  was 
bread  with  salt,  his  drink  vi^ater,  his  dinner  hour  sunset.  He  often  continued  two 
days,  and  sometimes  more,  without  eating.  He  watched  usually  till  dawn,  em- 
ploying himself  in  prayer.  If  he  grew  drowsy,  he  lay  down  for  a  few  moments  on 
liis  mat.  Often,  however,  the  bare  ground  was  his  bed.  He  declined  the  use  of  oil, 
the  bath,  and  things  of  that  nature,  as  rendering  the  body  effeminate.  It  is  said  he 
never  beheld  himself  undressed.  He  had  no  knowledge  of  letters,  nor  did  he  esteem 
them.    Sozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  13. 

"  Of  the  exploits  of  the  ascetics,  their  imagined  conflicts  with  demons  and  victo- 
ries over  them,  were  regarded  as  a  signal  proof  of  the  excellence  of  their  discipline, 
and  its  offensiveness  to  the  powers  of  darkness.  Athanasius  relates  that  the  devil, 
inflamed  with  envy  and  hatred  of  virtue  at  the  sight  of  Antony's  self-denial,  assailed 
him  with  all  the  arts  of  temptation  of  which  he  was  master,  at  one  time  approach- 
ing him  in  the  form  of  a  woman,  and  endeavoring  to  excite  his  passions ;  at  another 
attempting  to  terrify  him  by  assuming  the  shape  of  a  black  boy,  and  announcing 
himself  as  the  great  enemy  of  virtue  ;  and  on  his  enclosing  himself  in  the  sepulchre, 
attacking  him  with  a  multitude  of  demons,  and  scourging  him  till  he  swooned.  The 
solution  of  these  contests,  which  were  common  phenomena  of  the  ascetic  life,  doubt- 
less is,  that  the  exhaustion  consequent  on  extreme  fasting  induced  that  derangement 
of  the  nervous  system  not  infrequent  in  sickness,  by  which  all  objects  of  thought 
present  themselves  in  sensible  forms  of  the  utmost  vividness;  such  as  represent  in- 
telligent agents  and  material  objects  seeming  to  be  beheld  by  the  eye,  the  voices 
which  they  are  conceived  to  utter  to  be  heard  by  the  ear,  and  their  imagined  touch 
to  produce  the  impression  of  a  real  one.  Persons  in  that  state  are  often  perfectly 
conscious  that  it  is  an  illusion.  It  is  the  commencing  process,  however,  of  delirium, 
ajid  when  that  consciousness  is  lost  and  the  spectres  of  the  brain  are  taken  for  realities, 
becomes  insanity,  and  in  its  highest  fomis,  the  wildest  madness.  So  debased  had 
the  views  of  religion  entertained  by  the  greatest  genius  of  the  age  become,  that 
the  illusions  of  disease  were  thus  regarded  as  the  subliincst  flights  of  virtue,  and  the 
hopeless  sliipwreck  of  body  and  mind  a  victory  over  the  embattled  hosts  of  helL 
Athanasii  Vita  Anton,  torn.  ii.  pp.  454,  458. 


THE  THIRD  SEAL.  121 

thought  and  consciousness  itself,  to  annihilate  their  appetites,  and 
elevate  themselves  to  the  passionless  calm  of  incorporeal  beings  ; 
a  process  in  which  they  generally  became  extremely  debased, 
sunk  often  to  premature  decrepitude,  and  not  unfrequently  into 
madness  and  idiocy.*  The  annals  of  ignorance,  folly,  degrada- 
tion, fanaticism,  and  crime,  present  fev^r  pictures  more  alien  from 
the  purity,  the  dignity,  the  wisdom  of  religion,  or  more  dishonor- 
able to  our  nature  than  the  records  drawn  by  their  admirers  of 
tiie  solitary  and  associated  ascetics  of  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth 
centuries. 

By  this  false  theory  of  the  nature  and  remedy  of  sin,  the  victims 
of  this  miserable  delusion  were  thus  thwarted  in  all  their  endeavors 
after  sanclification.  Like  the  millions  of  the  empire  whose  ef- 
forts to  supply  their  wants  by  the  culture  of  their  fields  were 
defeated  by  ihe  seizure  of  their  crops,  or  taxation  that  exhausted 
all  their  means,  they  were  starved  by  those  who  should  have  fed 
them  with  the  bread  of  life,  and  perished  by  the  discipline  on 
which  they  relied  for  salvation. 

VIII.  The  errors  that  were  held  in  regard  to  the  influence 
of  demons,  were  fraught  with  a  similar  tendency.  It  was  im- 
agined that  the  excitement  of  the  appetites  and  passions  was  the 
work  of  malignant  spirits,  and  their  expulsion  therefore  neces- 
sary in  order  to  exemption  from  temptation.^  Exorcism  was  ac- 
cordingly regarded  as  an  important  step  in  the  process  of  sancti- 
fication,  and  relied  on  as  a  means  of  preparation  for  heaven. 

'  Evagrius  says  of  those  of  the  age  of  Arcadius :  "  Some  of  them  enclose  them- 
selves in  houses  so  small  that  they  can  neither  stand  erect  nor  lie  down  at  length. 
Others  associate  with  beasts,  and  pour  out  prayer  to  God  iu  the  obscure  caves  of  the 
earth.  But  tiiey  devised  another  mode  of  discipline  that  seems  to  transcend  the  ut- 
most powers  of  endurance  ;  for  men  and  women  go  into  the  desert,  wearing  only 
what  clothing  decency  requires,  and  expose  the  rest  of  the  body  naked  to  the 
extremes  of  cold  and  heat,  regardless  alike  of  each.  They  also  reject  all  food 
that  is  appropriate  to  man,  and  graze  the  earth,  whence  they  are  called  foragers, 
and  provide  only  enough  to  support  life,  so  that  in  time  they  resemble  beasts,  be- 
coming changed  in  their  appearance,  and  so  averse  to  men  that  they  flee  at  their 
approach,  and  if  pursued  conceal  themselves  by  a  rapid  flight,  or  retreat  into  some 
inaccessible  place.  I  will  mention  another  characteristic  still  more  worthy  of  consider- 
ation. There  are  some  among  them,  though  few,  who  after  having  reached  through 
virtue  an  insusceptibility  of  passion,  return  to  the  world,  and  by  feigning  to  be  insane, 
trample  down  vain-glory,  which  Plato  says  is  the  last  coat  of  which  the  soul  divests 
itself.  Tiiey  learn  to  eat  so  wholly  without  sensibility,  that  if  it  were  necessary  even 
with  innkeepers  or  hucksters,  they  would  feel  no  delicacy  in  respect  to  the  place,  the 
company,  or  any  thing  else.  They  enter  baths  that  are  frequented,  associate  much 
with  women,  and  lave  with  them.  They  become  so  superior  to  passion  as  to  triumph 
over  nature,  so  that  neither  the  sight,  the  touch,  nor  the  embrace  itself  of  a  woman 
excites  any  natural  sensation."     Evagrii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  21. 

'  Athanasii  Vita  Auton.,  tom.  ii.,  p.  456.  Mosheim,  Hist.  Ch.,  ce"*.  ii'..  p.  ii.,  c.  4, 
8.4. 

16 


122  THE  THIRD  SEAL. 

"  The  Scriptures,  and  the  ancient  and  uniform  practice  of  the 
church  in  baptism,  clearly  show  that  infants  are  freed  from  the 
sway  of  the  devil  when  they  are  exorcised,  and  promise  through 
those  who  bear  them  to  renounce  him,"^ 

IX.  On  similar  false  principles  a  system  of  external  discipline 
of  dishonor  and  deprivation,  was  employed  to  correct  and  restore 
those  penitent  members  of  the  church,  who  had  either  fallen  into 
great  sins,  or  even  violated  the  most  unreasonable  canons.^  In- 
stead of  higher  instruction,  and  more  authoritative  and  affection- 
ate appeals,  they  were  debarred  from  the  renewal  of  their  vows 
and  the  celebration  of  the  death  of  Christ,  excluded  from  the 
station  of  communicants,  driven  to  the  vestibule  or  area  of  the 
house  of  worship,^  and  systematically  deprived,  often  for  a  long 
series  of  years,  of  the  very  aids  that  were  most  needed  to  con- 
vince them  of  their  sins,  recall  them  to  penitence,  and  confirm 
them  in  faith  and  love.'*  Those  of  the  excommunicated,  though 
for  the  most  trivial  and  unjustifiable  causes,  who  did  not  seek  a 
reconciliation  with  the  church  and  submit  to  the  prescribed  pen- 
ance, were  rendered  infamous,  and  debarred  the  rights  of  citizen- 
ship and  of  humanity. 

X.  A  course  of  reserve  and  concealment  was  systematically 
pursued  with  the  young.  Instruction  in  the  higher  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity, especially  those  indicated  by  the  sacraments,  was  delib- 
erately withheld  from  all  candidates  for  baptism  and  confirmation.^ 

'  Circumstipantur  enim  et  divinarum  auctoritate  lectionum,  et  antiquitus  tradito  et 
retento  firmo  ecclesiae  ritu  in  baptismate  parvulorum  ubi  apertissinie  demonstrantur 
infantes,  et  cum  exorcizantur  et  cum  ei  se  per  eos,  &,  quibus  gestautur,  renuntiare 
respondent,  a,  diaboli  dominatione  liberari.  Augt.  Epist.  194,  c.  43.  See  also  Con- 
cil.  Carthag.  c.  7.     Labbei  Concil.  torn.  iii.  p.  952. 

*  Mosheim,  Hist.  Cliurch,  cent,  ill.,  part  ii.,  c.  iv.,  s.  1. 

*  "  The  place  of  weeping,  where  the  olTender  should  stand  and  ask  the  prayers  of 
believers  as  they  enter,  is  without  the  door  of  the  oratory.  The  place  of  hearing, 
within  the  door  in  the  porch,  where  the  sinner  should  stand  as  long  as  the  catechu- 
men, and  go  out  then,  for  having  heard  the  Scriptures  and  the  discourse,  let  them 
be  excluded  as  unfit  to  be  present  at  the  prayer.  The  place  of  prostration  is  such, 
that  he  who  is  stationed  within  the  gate  of  the  temple  may  go  out  witli  the  cate- 
chumen. The  place  of  the  assembly  such,  that  he  who  belongs  to  it  may  stand 
with  the  believing,  and  not  go  out  witli  the  catechumen.  And  finally,  there  is  the 
place  of  participating  the  sacraments."  Gregorii  Thaum.,  c.  xi. ;  Labbei  Concil. 
torn.  i.,p.  1030. 

*  Pulsent  sane  fores,  sed  non  utique  confringant.  Adeant  ad  limen  ecclesise,  sad 
non  utique  trausiliant.  Cypriani  Epist.  xxx.,  c.  7.  By  the  council  of  Eiiberis,  those 
who  left  the  Catholic  church  and  joined  a  sect  were,  if  they  returned,  debarred 
from  eomniuniou  and  subjected  to  penance  ten  years  ;  other  offenders  seven  years, 
five,  and  shorter  periods ;  and  sucli  as  were  guilty  of  sacrificing,  manslaughter,  and 
infanticide,  were  forever  debarred  from  readniission.  Labbei  Concil.,  tom.  ii.,  pp. 
5-9. 

'  Origcn  compared  the  gradual  initiation  of  the  catechumen  to  the  progress  of  the 


THE  THIRD  SEAL.  123 

Thus  they  whose  office  it  was  to  teach  the  gospel,  by 
neglecting  and  suppressing  the  truth,  by  substituting  philoso- 
phy in  its  place,  and  by  inculcating  false  views  of  the  nature 
and  means  of  sanctification,  verified  in  a  terrible  manner  the 
prophecy,  and  reduced  the  church  to  a  destitution  of  the  means 
of  spiritual  life,  analogous  to  the  dearth  of  bread  produced  by 
oppressive  exactions  in  the  empire. 

Expositors  have  universally,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  formed 
a  different  judgment  of  this  symbol ;  mjst  of  them  regarding 
the  horseman  as  an  emblem  of  famine  itself,  occasioned  by 
ordinary  causes,  not  one  who  induces  a  scarcity  by  wrongfully 
usurping  the  means  of  subsistence,  and  obstructing  and  dis- 
couraging their  culture.  Thus  Grotius  and  Rosenmuller  in- 
terpret the  symbol  of  the  general  famine  in  the  reign  of  Clau- 
dius, predicted  by  Agabus,  Acts  xi.  28;  Dr.  Hammond  of  one 
foreshown  in  Matthew  xxiv.  7,  which  he  referred  to  Judea  an- 
terior to  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  ;  Mr.  Brightman  and  Mr.  Dau- 
buz,  of  a  scarcity  in  the  time  of  Septiinius  Severus  ;  and  Mr 
Lowman  of  a  dearth  during  the  reign  of  the  Antonines.  But 
that,  in  whatever  relation  it  is  contemplated,  is  untenable.  If 
the  horseman  be  regarded  as  a  personification  of  famine,  or 
famine  as  a  symbol,  and  in  that  character  foreshowing  a  literal 
famine,  as  he  can  only  be  such  by  representation,  he  is  treated 
as  the  symbol  of  a  symbol,  which  is  inadmissible.  If  he  be 
regarded  as  merely  symbolizing  a  famine,  then  he  is  made  the 
symbol  of  a  mere  relation,  which  is  against  the  law  of  analogy. 
The  construction  of  Mr.  Mede,  Mr.  Whiston,  Mr.  Jurieu,  and 
Bishop  Newton,  who  exhibit  the  symbol  as  foreshowing  a  period 

Israelites  from  Egypt  to  Canaan.  "  When  having  left  the  darkness  of  idolatry  you 
desire  to  approach  and  hear  the  divine  lavi^,  you  leave  Egypt.  When  you  are  en- 
rolled among  the  catechumen,  and  begin  to  conform  to  the  ecclesiastical  rules,  you 
advance  to  the  Red  Sea,  and  gain  a  station  in  the  desert,  where  you  hear  the  voice 
of  God  and  daily  behold  the  glorified  countenance  of  Moses.  But  if  you  approach 
the  mystical  fount  of  baptism,  and  standing  vi'ith  the  Levitical  order  are  initiated 
into  the  venerated  and  august  sacraments,  which  they  know  to  whom  the  know- 
ledge is  lawful,  then  having  passed  Jordan  by  the  ministry  of  the  priests  you  enter 
the  land  of  promise,  where  Joshua  succeeding  to  Moses  receives  you  and  becomes 
your  leader  during  the  remainder  of  the  journey."  Homil.  iv.  in  lib.  Jesu  Nave,  c.  i., 
p.  405. 

Atiianasius  says,  "  It  is  becoming,  as  it  is  written,  to  conceal  the  beautiful  mys- 
tery of  the  King.  And  the  Lord  commands,  '  cast  not  holy  things  to  the  dogs  nor 
pearls  before  swine,'  for  it  is  not  lawful  to  celebrate  the  mysteries  before  the  un- 
initiated, lest  the  idolatrous  who  are  ignorant  should  laugh,  or  the  catechumen  hur- 
ried on  too  rapidly  should  be  scandalized."  Apol.  ad  Imp.,  torn,  i.,  p.  731.  See 
also  Concil.  Laod.  can.  xix. ;  Labbei  Concil.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  5G7  ;  Casauboni  ExerciU 
xvi.  m  Baron.,  p.  478  ;  Pagi  Crit.  in  Baron,  anno  118. 


124  THE  THIRD  SEAL. 

of  just  and  severe  government  in  the  Roman  empire,  and  refer  it 
to  the  reign  of  Septimius  Severus,  is  open  to  the  same  objection. 
If  the  horseman  as  a  symbol  be  regarded  as  justice,  he  can  only 
be  such  by  representation,  vv^hich  is  absurd.  If  he  be  regarded 
as  merely  symbolizing  the  exercise  of  justice,  he  is  then  made 
the  symbol  of  a  mere  action  or  quality,  which,  as  no  resemblance 
whatever  subsists  between  them,  is  incompatible  with  analogy. 
Moreover,  if  the  horseman  and  his  accompaniments  be  a  mere 
symbol  of  justice,  not  of  an  agent  exercising  justice,  how  does 
it  appear  but  that  its  whole  office  as  a  symbol  is  fulfilled  in  that 
representation  ?  On  what  ground  can  it  be  assumed  that  the 
justice  thus  represented,  is  itself  likewise  a  symbol,  and  fore- 
shows something  else  ?  If,  on  the  other  hand,  such  a  secondary 
symbolization  be  allowed,  what  clue  is  there  to  its  nature  ? 
What  does  justice  symbolize  ?  What  proof  is  there  that  that 
which  it  foreshows  may  not  likewise  be  a  mere  representation  of 
some  subsequent  agent,  event,  or  characteristic  ?  Where  is  the 
succession  to  terminate  ?  How  is  the  interpreter  to  ascertain 
when  he  has  reached  the  agent  or  event  which  it  is  the  final  de- 
sign of  the  vision  to  symbolize  ? 

Cocceius  exhibits  the  rider  as  a  symbol  of  avaricious  and  as- 
piring bishops  prostituting  their  office  to  worldly  ends,  and  the 
voice  from  the  living  creatures  as  the  voice  of  the  church  de- 
manding from  them  the  service  they  are  bound  to  yield,  and 
prohibiting  them  from  obstructing  the  truth.  But  to  make  the 
living  creatures  symbols  of  tlie  church  on  earth,  is  to  make  the 
throne  and  him  who  sat  on  it  symbols  also  of  a  throne  and  mon- 
arch in  the  church  on  earth,  and  thence  to  exhibit  the  worship 
offered  him  as  idolatry,  which  is  impossible.  Mr.  Elliott  regards 
the  horseman  as  a  Roman  procurator,  intrusted  with  the  collec- 
tion of  revenue  and  produce  from  the  provinces,  and  the  voice 
from  the  midst  of  the  living  creatures,  as  denoting  the  laws  of 
that  office  prohibiting  injustice,  and  assigning  the  values  of  prop- 
erty, and  interprets  the  symbol  of  oppressive  taxation  under 
Caracalla  and  his  successors.  But  that  is  founded  on  the  as- 
sumption that  the  representative  agent  and  agency  are  of  the 
same  species  as  the  agent  and  action  symbolized,  and  is  in  viola- 
tion therefore  of  analogy. 

Vitringa  regarded  the  horseman  and  his  accompaniments  as  an 
emblem  of  a  slight  scarcity  of  corn  exciting  the  apprehension 
of  a  greater,  and  a  public  decree  in  regard  to  its  price  ;  but  alle- 
ged as  its  fulfilment  the  dissensions  and  contests  of  the  church 
on  the  one  hand  exciting  the  fear  of  spiritual  famine,  and  the 


THE  FOURTH  SEAL.  125 

remedial  and  preventive  doctrinal  decrees  of  the  councils  re- 
specting them  on  the  otiier.  But  what  relation  is  there  between 
a  slight  famine  of  corn  and  a  superabundance  of  dissensions  and 
ecclesiastical  canons,  except  it  be  of  dissimilarity  ;  or  on  what 
ground  can  an  emblem  of  one  effect  be  regarded  as  symbolizing 
the  cause  and  remedies  of  another  effect ; — a  scarcity  of  pro- 
visions the  cause  and  the  cure  of  a  spiritual  famine,  than  which 
no  two  things  are  more  devoid  of  resemblance  ? 

Dean  Woodhouse  regards  the  color  of  the  horse  as  denoting 
darkness,  the  balance,  or  yoke,  as  he  renders  it,  as  an  emblem 
of  slavery,  the  price  of  wheat  and  barley  as  symbolizing  a  scar- 
city, and  interprets  them  of  the  extreme  ignorance,  the  burden- 
some rites,  and  the  gross  superstitions  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
dearth  of  practical  religion  on  the  other,  which  marked  especial- 
ly the  middle,  and  in  a  large  degree,  several  of  the  earlier  ages. 
But  that  is  obnoxious  likewise  to  insuperable  objections.  He 
founds  his  reference  of  the  symbol  to  those  events,  not  on  the 
ground  of  analogy,  but  on  the  assumption  that  all  the  prophecies 
of  the  Apocalypse  are  to  be  taken  as  relating  to  the  church,  ex- 
cept when  on  his  views  of  the  rules  of  construction,  the  symbols 
or  language  render  that  application  impossible  ;  which  is  to  in- 
terpret them  not  by  the  laws  of  symbolization,  but  by  a  mistaken 
conjecture.  He  overlooks  the  consideration  that  the  horseman 
is  the  representative  agent,  his  accompaniments  merely  signifi- 
cant of  his  office  and  agency,  and  that  the  law  of  symbolization 
requires  that  he  should  be  interpreted  as  representing  a  resem- 
bling order  of  agents  that  give  birth  to  an  analogous  class  of 
events  ;  and  instead,  exhibits  the  whole  symbol  as  denoting  effects 
merely,  not  agents  producing  them  ;  and  the  several  parts  of  the 
symbol  as  denoting  different  species  of  effects,  as  ignorance, 
bondage,  and  a  dearth,  which  is  equally  against  analogy. 


SECTION  XI. 

CHAPTER    VI.    7-8. 
THE    FOURTH    SEAL. 


And  when  he  opened  the  fourth  seal,  I  heard  the  voice  of  the 
fourth  living  creature  say,  Come.  And  I  looked,  and  lo,  a  pale  horse, 
and  he  who  sat  on  him,  his  name  was  Death  ;  and  the  grave  follow- 


126  THE    FOURTH    SEAL. 

ed  with  him.  And  power  was  given  to  him  over  a  fourth  part  of  the 
earth,  to  kill  with  the  sword,  and  with  famine,  and  with  death,  and 
by  the  wild  beasts  of  the  earth. 

The  agencies  of  the  preceding  horsemen  were  employed  chief- 
ly in  varying  the  condition  of  the  living.  The  office  of  this  is  to 
kill,  not  merely  to  lessen  the  enjoyments  of  life,  or  lay  a  founda- 
tion for  its  destruction,  and  his  name  is  for  that  reason  Death. 
This  character  is  indicated  also  by  the  cadaverous  color  of  the 
horse  and  by  his  attendant  the  grave,  which  hades  undoubtedly 
denotes.  It  were  indeed  more  terrible  to  conceive  of  it  as  a 
yawning  passage  to  the  realms  of  the  lost,  following  death's  foot- 
steps, and  disclosing  to  the  spectators  the  myriad  spirits  of  those 
killed  by  him  descending  to  that  world,  but  analogy  forbids  it. 
Of  what  world  is  hades  the  symbol,  if  it  be  taken  as  the  invisible 
dwelling  of  the  lost  ? 

No  delineation  is  given  of  the  figure  of  the  horseman.  He 
was  doubtless,  however,  a  human  form,  as  it  is  said  not  that  he 
was  death  itself,  but  that  his  name  was  death, — a  destroyer.  The 
pestilence  is  his  peculiar  instrument  of  destruction  ;  to  kill  by 
death  in  contradistinction  from  the  sword,  being  to  kill  by  a  natu- 
ral disease,  instead  of  violence.  He  uses  other  weapons  also, 
power  being  given  him  over  a  fourth  part  of  the  earth  to  kill  with 
the  sword,  and  with  famine,  and  by  the  wild  beasts  of  the  earth, 
as  well  as  with  death.  Of  these  instruments,  the  first  is  that  of 
the  armed  competitors  for  the  throne  of  the  second  seal,  who  take 
peace  from  the  earth  and  kill  one  another  ;  the  second  that  of  the 
oppressors  of  the  third  seal,  who  by  excessive  exactions  reduce 
their  subjects  to  poverty  and  famine.  Death,  the  third,  is  a  pesti- 
lential element  breathed  from  his  own  lips  into  the  atmosphere 
tainting  the  vitals  of  whoever  inhales  it.  These  he  himself  di- 
rectly wields.  The  fourth  are  agents  who  act  at  his  bidding,  the 
dragon  exhibited  in  subsequent  visions  as  standing  before  the  wo- 
man, and  the  wild  beasts  emerging  from  the  sea  and  the  earth 
and  exercising  a  tyrannical  sway  over  their  respective  territo- 
ries. 

This  symbol  is  taken  also  doubtless  like  the  former  from  the 
empire,  and  at  a  period  when  there  were  several  acknowledged 
emperors  or  Caesars  who  contended  with  each  other  for  larger 
or  exclusive  authority,  who  reduced  their  subjects  to  famine  by 
oppression,  whose  reigns  were  marked  by  pestilences,  and  who 
destroyed  their  subjects  also  by  wild  beasts.  And  such  a  period 
was  the  rei<j;n  of  Diocletian  and  his  immediate  successors.      He 


THE    FOURTH    SEAL.  127 

introduced  a  division  of  the  imperial  power  by  elevating  Maxim- 
ian  Herculius  to  the  rank  of  Augustus,  and  Maximian  Galerius 
and  Constantius  Chlorus  to  that  of  Cassar,  and  assigning  to  each 
a  separate  territory  ; — a  distribution  of  power  sometimes  to  more, 
sometimes  to  fewer  hands,  that  with  few  interruptions  continued 
to  the  fall  of  the  western  empire.  But  some  of  those  thus  exalt- 
ed to  authority,  soon  became  jealous  of  their  associates  or  dissat- 
isfied with  a  limited  rule,  and  conspiring  against  one  another, 
took  peace  from  the  earth  by  rivalries  and  mutual  slaughters. 
Thus  Diocletianhimself  and  Maximian  Herculius,  were  induced  or 
compelled  by  the  ambition  of  Galerius,  to  abdicate  and  exalt  him 
and  his  associate  Ccesar  to  the  station  of  August!  ;^  and  a  succes- 
sion of  plots  and  civil  wars  for  the  empire  followed  for  near  twen- 
ty years.  Maxentius  the  son  of  Maximian  Herculius  usurping 
the  purple  at  Rome,  and  Maximian  himself  resuming  it  without 
the  consent  of  Galerius,  they  conspired  against  Severus,  Avho  on 
the  abdication  of  Maximian  had  succeeded  him  in  the  command 
of  Italy,  and  inducing  his  soldiers  to  desert  him,  compelled  him 
to  surrender  himself  to  their  hands,  and  put  him  to  death.^  Ga- 
lerius himself  was  thwarted  in  an  attempt  to  reconquer  Italy,  and 
forced  to  retreat  in  disgrace.  Maximian  soon  after  conspiring 
against  Constantine,  who  had  succeeded  his  father  Constantius 
Chlorus  in  the  command  of  the  west,  met  an  ignominious  death. 
His  son  Maxentius  perished  in  a  civil  war  which  immediately 
succeeded  between  him  and  Constantine.  Maximin,  the  Ceesar 
of  the  east,  usurped  the  rank  of  Augustus  against  the  wishes  of 
Galerius,  and  on  the  death  of  the  latter,  made  war  on  Licinius 
who  succeeded  that  emperor,  and  was  defeated  and  soon  perish- 
ed ;^  and  finally  Licinius  himself  met  a  similar  overthrow  in  a 
contest  with  Constantine  and  suffered  a  violent  death.* 

The  period  was  thus  marked  by  the  usurpations,  rivalries  and 
bloodshed  of  the  horseman  of  the  second  seal. 

It  was  not  less  distinguished  by  the  enormous  and  violent  ex- 
actions of  the  third.  The  institution  of  four  separate  civil  es- 
tablishments instead  of  one,  and  great  augmentation  of  the  mili- 
tary forces  consequent  on  their  jealousies  and  civil  wars,  natural- 
ly led  to  a  heavier  taxation  ;  but  to  those  necessary  burdens  were 
added  the  demands  of  an  insatiable  avarice  and  boundless  prodi- 
gality. Lactantius  represents  the  increase  of  the  civil  and  mili- 
tary establishments  as  rendering  the  number  who  were  to  be 

*  Lactantii  de  Mort.  Pereecut.  c.  18. 

"  Ibid.  c.  26.     Zosimi  Hist.  lib.  iL  c.  10. 

*  Lactantii  de  Mort.  Persecut.  c.  37-50.  *  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  x.  c  8. 


128  THE    FOURTH    SEAL. 

supported  at  the  public  expense,  greater  even  than  the  contribu- 
tors, and  the  resources  of  the  farmers  as  so  exhausted  by  the 
enormity  of  the  exactions  required  for  their  support,  that  fields 
were  deserted,  and  scenes  of  cultivation  left  to  overgrow  with 
wood.  The  impositions  enforced  by  threats,  violence  and  con- 
fiscation, at  length  gave  birth  to  a  severe  scarcity,  which  was  still 
further  aggravated  by  Diocletian's  attempting  to  prescribe  the 
rates  of  sale.^ 

To  these  impositions,  other  demands  equally  ruinous  were 
added  of  materials,  utensils,  artisans  and  laborers,  for  the  erec- 
tion of  palaces,  amphitheatres,  and  other  edifices  at  his  new  capital 
Nicomedia ;  and  a  favorite  method  of  grasping  means  for  that 
purpose,  was  the  execution  of  the  wealthy  on  false  accusations  in 
order  to  the  confiscation  of  their  property.^ 

Maximian  Herculius  was  not  less  rapacious,  less  merciless, 
nor  less  bloody,  but  it  was  reserved  to  Galerius  to  carry  extor- 
tion and  violence  to  their  utmost  extreme.  His  accession  to  su- 
preme power  inflamed  him  with  a  passion  to  vex  and  torture  his 
subjects.  "  Swarms  of  exactors  sent  into  the  provinces  and  cities 
filled  them  with  agitation  and  terror,  as  though  a  conquering  en- 
emy were  leading  them  into  captivity.  The  fields  were  separate- 
ly measured,  the  trees  and  vines,  the  flocks  and  herds  numbered, 
and  an  enumeration  made  of  the  men.  In  the  cities  the  cultiva- 
ted and  rude  were  united  as  of  the  same  rank.  The  streets  were 
crowded  with  groups  of  families,  every  one  being  required  to  ap- 
pear with  his  children  and  slaves.  Tortures  and  lashes  resound- 
ed on  every  side.  Sons  were  gibbeted  in  the  presence  of  their 
parents,  and  the  most  confidential  servants  harassed  that  they 
might  make  disclosures  against  their  masters,  and  wives  that  they 
migiit  testify  unfavorably  to  their  husbands.  If  there  were  a  to- 
tal destitution  of  property,  they  were  still  tortured  to  make  ac- 
knowledgments against  themselves,  and  when  overcome  by  pain, 
inscribed  for  what  they  did  not  possess.  Neither  age  nor  ill 
health  was  admitted  as  an  excuse  for  not  appearing.  The  sick 
and  weak  were  borne  to  the  place  of  niscription,  a  reckoning 
made  of  the  age  of  each,  and  years  added  to  the  young  and  de- 
ducted from  the  old,  in  order  to  subject  them  to  a  higher  taxation 
than  the  law  imposed.  The  whole  scene  was  filled  with  wailing 
and  sadness.  At  length  money  was  paid  for  each  individual,  and 
a  ransom  given  for  life.  Yet  no  faith  was  put  in  these  tax  gath- 
erers, but  otliers  and  others  again  after  them,  were  sent  to  renew 
the  search  for  more  property,  and  the  assessment  always  raised, 

*  Lactantii  de  Mort.  Persecut.  c.  7.  '  Lactantii  de  Mort.  P.  c.  7. 


THE    FOURTH    SEAL.  129 

though  nothing  new  were  found,  that  they  might  have  the  satis- 
faction of  seeming  not  to  have  been  sent  in  vain.  In  the  mean 
time  individuals  died,  and  the  herds  and  the  flocks  were  diminish- 
ed, yet  tribute  was  none  the  less  required  to  be  paid  for  the  dead, 
so  that  it  was  no  longer  allowed  either  to  live  or  to  die  without  a 
tax.  Mendicants  alone  escaped  from  whom  nothing  could  be 
wrenched,  and  whom  misfortune  and  misery  had  made  incapable 
of  furtiier  oppression.  These  the  impious  wretch  affecting  to 
pity,  that  they  might  not  suffer  want,  ordered  to  be  assembled, 
borne  off  in  vessels,  and  plunged  into  the  sea.  Such  was  the  be- 
nignant method  in  which  he  undertook  to  provide  that  no  one 
should  be  miserable  under  his  rei2"n.  That  no  one  might 
escape  the  census  under  the  pretence  of  mendicity,  he  thus 
put  to  death  a  great  multitude  of  the  miserable."^  Similar 
exactions,  violences  and  barbarities  marked  the  reign  of  Max- 
imin  in  the  east,  and  gave  birth  in  a  like  manner  to  a 
famine,^  of  Maxentius  also  at  Rome,  and  of  Licinius  in  Illyria 
and  Asia.^ 

The  period  was  signalized  also  by  deadly  pestilences,  which 
not  improbably  sprung  in  some  degree  from  the  scarcity  and  mis- 
ery produced  by  the  tyranny  of  the  rulers.  Eusebius  relates  that 
while  Maximin  himself  and  his  army  suffered  severely  in  the  war 
with  the  Armenians,  the  people  at  large  who  inhabited  the  cities 
under  his  rule,  were  harassed  both  by  famine  and  pestilence.  "A 
measure  of  wheat  of  six  bushels  was  sold  for  two  thousand  and 
five  hundred  Attic  drachms.  Multitudes  died  in  the  cities,  but 
still  greater  numbers  residing  in  the  country  and  in  villages,  the 
rustics  formerly  very  numerous  being  almost  exterminated  either 
by  a  want  of  sustenance,  or  a  pestilential  disease.  Some  were 
glad  to  sell  their  most  precious  things  to  the  rich  for  a  morsel  of 
food,  others  having  parted  with  their  possessions  little  by  little, 
were  driven  to  such  extreme  want  as  to  eat  noxious  vegetables 
and  straw,  by  which  they  destroyed  their  health  and  perished. 
Women  of  rank  were  forced  to  beg  in  the  markets.  Some  so 
withered  that  they  seemed  like  ghosts  staggering  to  and  fro  and 

'  Agri  glebatim  metiebantur,  vites  et  arbores  numerabantur,  animalia  omnis  gen- 
eris scribebantur,  hoininum  capita  iiotabanlur,  in  civitatibus  urbanaj  ac  rusticce  ple- 
bes  adunatae,  foras  omnia  gregibus  familiarum  referta,  unusquisque  cum  liberis,  cum 
servis  aderaiit,  tormenta  ac  verbena  personabant,  filii  adversus  parentes  suspende- 
bantur,  fidelissimi  quique  servi  contra  dominos  vexabantur,  uxores  adversus  maritos. 
Si  omnia  defecerant,  ipsi  contra  se  torquebantur,  et  cum  dolor  vicerat,  adscribebaotur 
quae  non  habebantur. — Lactantii  de  Mort.  Persecut.  c.  23. 

'  Eusebii  de  Martyr  Palasst.  c.  iv.     Hist  Eccl.  lib.  ix.  c.  8. 

'  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ix.  c.  8  ;  lib.  x.  c.  8. 

17 


130  THE    FOURTH    SEAL. 

unable  to  support  themselves,  fell  in  the  public  ways  and  ex- 
pired. Dead  bodies  cast  into  the  market  places  and  streets, 
stripped  and  lacerated  by  dogs,  presented  for  many  days  a  horrid 
spectacle.  The  pest  thus  devoured  whole  households  and  fami- 
lies, and  especially  of  those  who  having  an  abundance  of  food 
were  protected  from  hunger  :  so  that  the  most  opulent  magis- 
trates of  the  provinces  and  persons  of  rank,  as  though  the  famine 
had  designedly  reserved  them  for  the  pestilence,  perished  by 
deaths  of  the  most  acute  and  rapid  form.  Two  and  sometimes 
three  dead  bodies  were  carried  together  out  of  the  same  house."' 
The  same  pestilence  raged  also  in  the  west.^ 

And  finally  these  tyrants  destroyed  their  subjects  by  wild  beasts. 
Not  only  were  the  Christians  during  the  persecutions  thrown  to 
panthers,  bears,  boars,  and  bulls  in  the  amphitheatres  for  the 
amusement  of  the  people,^  but  it  was  the  common  sport  of  Gale- 
rius  to  feast  the  numerous  wild  beasts  which  he  kept  in  his  train  on 
his  living  subjects.  "  The  cruelties  which  he  had  learned  in  the 
persecution  of  the  Christians  he  exercised  towards  all.  None  of  his 
punishments  were  light.  Not  the  islands,  not  the  prisons,  not  the 
mines,  but  fire,  the  cross,  and  wild  beasts  were  the  chosen  and  daily 
instruments  of  his  barbarity."*  "  He  had  bears  resembling  himself 
in  size  and  ferocity  which  he  collected  through  the  whole  period 
of  his  reign,  and  as  often  as  he  wished  to  amuse  himself,  he  or- 
dered some  of  them  to  be  brought,  and  men  to  be  thrown  to  them, 
not  so  much  to  be  chewed  as  to  be  swallowed.  As  he  beheld 
their  limbs  torn  asunder,  he  was  accustomed  to  laugh  with  de- 
ilight.     He  never  supped  without  human  blood."' 

All  the  characteristics  of  the  symbol  were  thus  found  in  the 
•emperors  during  the  reign  of  Diocletian,  and  his  associates  and 
successors,  and  it  is  from  that  terrible  combination  of  destroyers, 
doubtless,  that  it  is  taken. 

This  horseman,  like  those  who  preceded  him,  is  the  represent- 
ative of  a  class  and  succession  of  agents,  manifestly  from  the 
nature  and  variety  of  the  instruments  he  employs,  and  the  extent 

*  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ix.  c.  8.  *  Cypriani  liU  ad  Demetrianam,  c.  2, 5. 

'  Ense"bii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  viii.  c.  7. 

■*  Quae  igitur  in  Christianis  excruciandis  didicerat,  coiisuetudine  ijjsa  in  omnes  ex- 
«rcebat.  Nulla  poena  penes  euni  levis,  non  insulte,  non  carceres,  non  metalla,  sed 
ignis  crux  ferse  in  illo  erant  quotidiana  et  facilia. — Lactantii  de  Mort.  Fersecut.  c.  22. 

'  Habebat  ursos  ferociae  ac  magnitudinis  suce  simillimos,  quos  toto  imperii  sui  tern- 
pore  elegerat.  Quotiens  delectari  libuerat,  horumaliquem  adferri  nominatim  jubebat. 
His  homines  non  plane  comedendi,  sed  obsorbendi  objectabantur ;  quorum  artus,  cum 
dissiparentur,  ridebat  suavissime  ;  nee  unquam  sine  humano  cruore  cocnabat. — Lact. 
de  Mort.  Pereecut.  c.  21. 


THE  FOURTH  SEAL.  131 

of  his  ravages.  The  scene  of  his  agency  is  like  theirs,  the  re- 
ligious world  also,  not  the  philosophic ;  and  the  Christian,  not  the 
pagan,  as  is  seen  from  his  use  of  the  instruments  of  the  second 
and  third  horsemen,  and  from  the  consideration  that  neither  any 
new  agents,  like  those  which  he  denotes,  have  appeared  in  the 
pagan  world,  nor  was  the  system  of  idolatry  capable  of  any 
such  deterioration  as  his  agency  represents.  A  moral  pesti- 
lence itself,  no  new  infusion  was  requisite  to  render  it  the 
instrument  of  death  to  its  votaries.  The  Christian  church  is 
the  only  community  that  presents  the  requisite  analogies  to  the 
civil  empire. 

Who  then  are  they  in  the  church  of  that  and  subsequent  ages 
that  answer  to  the  symbol,  breathing  from  their  lips  a  pestilence 
on  the  souls,  like  that  which  the  horseman  breathed  on  the  bodies 
of  men  ;  and  using  the  instruments  also  of  the  second  and  third 
seals,  and  the  power  symbolized  in  the  prophecy  by  wild  beasts 
as  the  instruments  of  destruction  ?  As  the  antithesis  of  the  body 
is  the  soul,  and  of  a  pest  that  destroys  the  body,  a  false  religion 
that  destroys  the  soul,  they  must  be  an  order  that  teaches  an 
apostate  religion.  As  to  kill  by  the  sword  in  contradistinction 
from  famine  and  disease,  is  to  kill  by  violence  ;  and  to  cause 
spiritual  death  in  an  analogous  manner,  is  to  cause  it  by  violence, 
and  therefore  by  the  spiritual  sword,  or  the  mere  power  of  office, 
they  must  be  an  order  of  supreme  authority  in  the  church  who 
by  their  official  power  impel  men  to  apostatize  from  God.  And, 
finally,  as  the  wild  beasts  are  employed  in  the  prophecy  to  sym- 
bolize the  civil  rulers  of  the  empire  who  persecute  and  slaugh- 
ter the  people  of  God,  they  must  be  an  order  that  uses  the  civil 
rulers  as  instruments  in  compelling  them  to  apostatize. 

All  these  peculiarities  meet  in  the  metropolitans,  archbishops, 
and  other  superior  prelates  of  the  fourth  and  subsequent  ages, 
and  especially  in  the  patriarchs  of  the  Greek  and  the  popes  of 
the  Latin  church.  Those  orders  of  bishops  rose  into  existence, 
acquired  their  peculiar  powers,  or  at  least  first  obtained  a  recog- 
nition and  confirmation  of  them  from  the  church  and  the  civil 
government,  at  that  period.  Neither  patriarchs,  metropolitans, 
nor  archbishops,  were  known  till  the  reign  of  Constantine,  under 
whom  an  ecclesiastical  hierarchy  was  erected  after  the  model  of 
the  civil  government  of  the  empire,  he  being  the  head  of  the  one 
as  well  as  the  other.  The  bishops  of  each  province  who  had 
before  been  equal  in  office  and  rank,  were  placed  in  subordina- 
tion to  the  bishops  of  the  metropolis  of  the  province,  and  the 
metropolitan  bishops  to  a  patriarch  or  archbishop  of  the  capital 


132  THE  FOURTH  SEAL. 

of  the  diocese  in  which  their  provinces  were  situated.^  The  pre- 
cedence which  the  bishops  of  the  chief  cities,  Rome,  Alexan- 
dria, Antioch,  had  before  obtained  chiefly  from  tlie  rank  of  those 
cities  themselves,  and  partly  by  concession  from  their  equals  in 
official  authority  and  by  usurpation,  was  then  converted  by  the 
council  of  Nicaea  and  the  emperor  into  a  legal  right.^  Metropol- 
itans were  invested  with  authority  over  the  bishops  of  their  prov- 
inces, their  concurrence  was  necessary  in  order  to  their  ordination, 
they  had  power  to  suspend,  depose,  and  excommunicate  them, 
assemble  them  in  council,  preside  in  their  deliberations,  and  su- 
perintend and  enforce  the  execution  of  their  decrees,  which  were 
made  by  the  civil  government  as  well  as  the  council  obligatory 
on  the  clergy  and  churches  in  their  jurisdiction.^  The  patriarchs 
had  the  right  of  ordaining  all  metropolitans  within  their  jurisdic- 
tion, of  assembling  the  bishops  under  them  in  council,  presiding 
in  their  dehberations,  and  executing  their  canons.^  They  soon, 
however,  encroached  on  the  prerogatives  of  the  metropolitans, 

'  That  there  was  no  bishop  of  bishops  in  the  age  of  Cyprian,  is  seen  from  his 
address  to  the  council  of  Carthage.  "  Let  us  each  state  the  views  we  entertain 
on  the  subject  of  rebaptism,  neither  condemning  any  one,  nor  divesting  him  of  the 
right  of  fellowship  should  he  differ  from  us  in  opinion,  for  no  one  of  us  constitutes 
himself  a  bishop  of  bishops,  or  forces  his  colleagues  by  the  terror  of  a  tyrant  to 
follow  his  will,  but  each  has  the  utmost  freedom  of  decision,  and  is  neither  liable  to 
a  sentence  by  another,  nor  able  to  subject  another  to  his  judgment.''  Neque  cnim 
quisquam  nostrum  episcopum  se  esse  episcoporum  constituit,  aut  tyrranico  terrore 
ad  obsequendi  uecessitatem  collegas  suos  adigit.  Concil.  Carthag.  Labbei,  tom.  i. 
p.  951. 

'  The  supreme  authority  conferred  on  tlie  patriarclis  was  expressly  founded  on 
the  rank  of  their  cities.  "  The  bishop  of  Constantinople  takes  rank  next  after  the 
bishop  of  Rome,  because  Constantinople  is  the  new  Rome."  Concil.  Coustantinop. 
0.  iii.  Labbei,  tom.  iii.  p.  559.  Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  v.  c.  8. 

It  was  decreed  by  the  council  of  NicEea  that  the  customs  which  had  long  pre- 
vailed in  Egypt,  Lybia,  and  Pentapolis,  should  be  constituted  law,  so  that  the  bishop 
of  Alexandria  should  have  authority  over  them  all,  like  the  authority  which  was 
customary  with  the  bishop  of  Rome.  Their  rank  was  also  to  be  continued  to  the 
churches  at  Antioch,  and  in  tlie  other  eparchies.  Can.  vi.  Labbei  Concil.  tom.  ii. 
p.  G70. 

In  like  manner  the  false  letters  ascribed  by  Isidore  to  Anacletus  and  Stephen, 
represent  the  hierarchies  as  modelled  after  the  civil  government.  "  No  metropoli- 
tans or  other  bishops  sliould  be  called  primates,  except  those  who  hold  the  first  seats, 
and  whose  cities  the  ancients  regarded  as  primates.  The  rest  who  have  obtained 
other  metropohtan  cities  should  not  be  called  primates,  but  either  archbishops  or 
metropolitans.  For  the  cities  and  places  over  which  primates  ought  to  preside  were 
not  constituted  in  modem  times,  but  long  anterior  to  the  advent  of  Christ,  to  whose 
chief  magistrates  the  heathen  carried  up  their  great  causes  by  appeal,  and  it  was 
hi  those  cities  after  the  advent  of  Christ  that  the  apostles  and  their  successors  placed 
patriarchs  and  primates,  to  whom  the  important  affairs  of  the  bishops  and  great 
causes  are  to  be  referred."     Labbei  Concil.  torn.  i.  p.  891,  can.  vi.  p.  612,  can.  iv. 

*  Concil.  Niccni  can.  iv.  v.    Dupin.  de  Ant.  Eccl.  Discip.  Dissert,  i.  c.  11,  12. 
1     *  Dupin.  de  Ant.  Eccl.  Discip.  Dissert,  i.  c.  11,  12. 


THE  FOURTH  SEAL.  133 

assuming  often  the  ordination  of  the  bishops  of  their  provinces, 
and  denying  them  the  right  to  ordain,  except  with  their  sanction,* 
and  at  length  the  patriarchs  of  Rome  extorted  the  right  to  ap- 
point to  all  vacant  sees,  to  determine  all  ecclesiastical  causes,  and 
to  legislate  for  the  church,  and  thereby  reduced  the  whole  body 
of  the  clergy  and  people  of  the  western  empire  to  an  absolute 
vassalage  to  themselves.^ 

It  was  at  that  period,  and  under  the  promptings  and  guidance 
of  those  great  prelates,  that  the  church  first  formally  apostatized 
from  the  faith  and  worship  enjoined  in  the  gospel,  and  embraced 
a  false  religion.  The  preceding  century  had  been  marked  by  a 
neglect  and  adulteration  of  the  word  of  life,  not  by  a  public  and 
legalized  substitution  of  an  opposite  system  in  its  place.  It  was 
not  until  after  the  accession  of  Constantine,  that  the  worship  of 
the  cross,  the  superstitious  and  idolatrous  regard  of  relics,  the 
invocation  of  saints,  the  homage  of  images,  and  other  chief  ele- 
ments of  the  great  anti-christian  system,  were  introduced,  and 
made  emphatically  the  religion  of  the  nationalized  church. 

I.  The  patriarchs,  metropolitans,  and  archbishops  of  that  and 
the  following  ages,  breathed  a  pestilence  of  false  doctrine  from 
their  lips  which  infected  the  whole  body  of  the  church,  and  car- 
ried spiritual  death  to  myriads  of  their  people. 

The  ascription  to  the  image  of  the  cross  by  Constantine  of  a 
divine  virtue,  and  pretence  that  it  was  through  that  that  he 
gained  his  victories  over  Maxentius,  Licinius,  and  other  enemies,' 
if  not  the  device  of  the  prelates  whom  he  made  his  associates 

-  Dupin  de  Ant.  Eccl.  Discip.  Dissert  i.  c.  1.3.         *  Ibid.  Dissert,  ii. 

'  Constantine  related  that  as  he  was  about  to  attempt  the  conquest  of  Italy  from 
Maxentius,  the  form  of  a  cross  was  displayed  to  him  in  the  sky  with  the  inscrip- 
tion, "  Conquer  by  this  ;"  that  in  the  following  night  Christ  appeared  to  him  in  a 
dream  with  a  cross  in  his  hand,  and  directed  him  to  make  one  like  it,  and  use  it 
as  an  auxiliary  or  protection  against  his  enemies  in  battle. — Eusebii  de  Vita  Con- 
stant, lib.  i.  c  28.  iSozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  3.  He  accordingly  changed  the 
Roman  standard  called  labarum  into  the  form  of  a  cross,  appointed  a  select  band 
to  bear  and  protect  it,  treated  it  as  a  defence  against  his  enemies,  caused  it  to  be 
borne  before  him  as  he  advanced  to  battle,  and  sent  it  at  the  head  of  the  fresh 
troops  which  he  dispatched  to  support  or  rally  his  line  when  severely  pressed  by  the 
enemy.  It  was  regarded  by  the  soldiers  as  a  symbol  of  the  presence  of  the  Deity, 
and  honored  with  a  religious  homage. — Eusebii  de  Vita  Const,  lib.  i.  c.  30,  31.  So- 
zomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  4,  and  he  ascribed  to  it  his  victories.  "  The  emperor 
learning  the  deity  in  it  by  experience,  honored  that  victorious  standard  ;  for  by  that 
the  hostile  armies  were  made  to  give  way,  and  the  powers  of  invisible  demons  put 
to  flight ;  by  that  the  haughtiness  of  the  enemies  of  God  was  brought  down  ;  by 
that  the  tongues  of  the  reviling  and  impious  were  silenced ;  by  that  the  barbarous 
tribes  were  brought  into  subjection,  and  the  spirits  of  the  superstitious  convicted 
of  deceit." — Eusebii  Oratio  de  laud.  Const,  c.  ix  c.  xi.  Sozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  Ub.  i. 
C.8. 


134  THE   FOURTH   SEAL. 

alike  in  the  camp  and  the  palace,  at  least  received  the  sanction 
of  the  great  bishops  of  the  age,  and  gained  a  general  belief;* 
and  it  was  during  his  reign,  and  under  the  direction  of  Maca- 
rius,  the  metropolitan  of  Jerusalem,  that  the  pretended  discovery- 
was  made  of  Christ's  sepulchre  and  cross,^  and  the  homage  of 
those  objects  which  has  continued  through  fifteen  centuries  in- 
troduced into  the  church.^ 

It  was  at  the  same  period,  and  under  the  same  auspices,  that 
a  miraculous  virtue  was  first  ascribed  to  the  relics  of  the  apos- 
tles, prophets,  martyrs,  and  otlier  saints,  costly  edifices  erected 
over  their  graves,  and  a  public  and  idolatrous  homage  paid  to 
them.  Constantine  not  only  approved  and  enjoined  their  com- 
memoration,* but  set  the  example  of  an  idolatrous  regard,  by  the 
erection  especially  of  a  temple  at  Constantinople  in  honor  of  the 
apostles,  in  which  he  prepared  his  own  sepulchre,  under  the 
expectation  of  benefit  from  the  homage  to  be  paid  to  them,  where 
at  his  burial  prayers  were  offered  for  him  by  the  bishops  and 
people,^  and  at  length,  according  to  Philostorgius,  incense  and 
other  symbols  of  worship  presented  to  his  statue,  and  supplica- 
tions offered  for  protection  from   calamities.^     No  indications 

*  Eusebii  Oratio  de  laud.  Const,  c.  vi.,  ix.,  xi. 

'  Socrates,  Sozomen,  Theodoret,  and  Sulpicius,  who  give  a  history  of  the  dis- 
covery of  tlie  cross,  relate  that  the  pagans  liaving,  in  their  endeavors  to  obstruct 
the  progress  of  Christianity,  covered  Golgotha  with  a  deep  layer  of  earth,  and 
erected  on  it  a  temple  to  Venus,  the  knowledge  of  the  place  where  Christ  was  cni- 
cified  was  lost ;  but  that  Helena,  the  mother  of  the  emperor,  visiting  Jerusalem, 
and  desiring  to  pay  homage  to  the  wood  of  the  cross,  the  site  where  it  lay  interred 
was  revealed  by  supernatural  signals  and  dreams,  and  at  the  emperor's  command 
an  excavation  was  made,  which  disclosed  the  tomb  in  which  Christ  was  buried,  and 
near  by  the  three  crosses  on  which  he  and  the  malefactors  were  crucified,  with  the 
tablet  on  which  Pilate  inscribed  his  title  ;  that  the  tablet,  however,  being  unfasten- 
ed, and  it  thence  being  uncertain  which  was  the  cross  of  Christ,  Macarius,  assu- 
ming that  it  possessed  a  miraculous  virtue,  identified  it  by  applying  them  in  succes- 
sion to  a  sick  lady.  The  first  two  proved  inefficacious,  but  on  the  touch  of  the 
third  she  was  instantly  restored.  The  empress,  presuming  that  the  nails  were  en- 
dowed with  an  equal  virtue,  transmitted  them  to  her  son,  who  appropriated  them 
partly  to  his  own  defence,  causing  a  portion  of  them  to  bo  wrought  into  his  helmet, 
and  partly  to  the  protection  of  his  horse,  having  them  worked  into  the  bridle. — 
Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  17.  Sozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  c.  i.  Theodoriti  HisL 
Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  18.    Sulp.  Severi  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  pp.  380-392. 

"  Eusebii  de  Vita  Constant,  lib.  iii.  c.  30.  Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  17.  Sulpi- 
cius  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  pp.  387-392.  Eusebius  represents  that  none,  except  those 
who  were  ignorant  of  divine  things,  derided  the  honors  paid  by  Constantine  to  the 
sepulchre  and  cross. — De  laud.  c.  xi. 

*  Const.  Orat.  ad  Sanct.  Coet.  c.  xii.     Eusebii  de  Vita  Const,  lib.  iv.  c  23. 

*  Eusebii  de  Vita  Const,  lib.  iv.  c.  58,  59,  60,  71.  Sozomeni  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  ii 
0.34. 

"  This  enemy  of  God  accuses  the  Christians  of  propitiating  the  image  of  Con- 
stantine placed  on  a  porphyry  column  with  sacrifices,  paying  it  homage  with  lamps 


THE    FOURTH    SEAL.  135 

appear  in  the  histories  of  the  period  of  the  existence  of  any  such 
martyria  anterior  to  those  erected  by  him  at  Jerusalem  and  Con- 
stantinople ;  no  structures  of  that  kind  having  been  destroyed 
by  Diocletian  or  Licinius,  or  restored  by  Constantine  on  his  ac- 
cession to  supreme  power.^  Within  a  brief  period,  however, 
that  species  of  superstition  and  demonolatry  became  general. 
During  the  reign  of  his  son  Constantius  the  supposed  relics  of 
the  apostle  Andrew  and  the  evangelists  Luke  and  Timothy  were 
conveyed  from  Achaia  and  Ionia,  and  deposited  in  a  basilica 
erected  by  him  at  Constantinople  near  the  tomb  of  his  father.^ 
Soon  miracles  were  represented  to  be  wrought  at  such  shrines, 
and  even  at  the  graves  of  eminent  monks  and  martyrs  after  the 
removal  of  their  remains,  as  at  the  sepulchre  of  Hilarion,  both 
whence  he  was  stolen  and  where  he  was  reburied  f  of  Babylas 
at  Antioch,*  at  the  church  erected  in  honor  of  John  Baptist  near 
Constantinople,^  and  at  the  tomb  of  the  forty  martyrs.  The  tem- 
ples erected  to  the  saints  and  martyrs  became  very  numerous, 
even  during  the  reign  of  Constantius,  as  is  apparent  from  the 
demolition  of  several  at  Miletus  by  order  of  Julian,^  and  were 
greatly  multiplied  after  the  death  of  the  latter  in  consequence 
of  the  indignities  shown  by  him  to  their  relics  and  graves.'  A 
fanatical  passion  to  possess  the  remains  of  prophets,  apostles, 
and  confessors  seized  the  general  mind.  Dreams,  visions,  and 
prophecies  were  represented  as  the  means  of  their  discovery, 
and  all  the  deceitful  arts  of  avarice  and  ambition  employed  to 
impose  on  the  credulous  multitude.**  Their  presence  was  regard- 

and  incense,  addressing  prayers  to  it  as  to  God,  and  offering  supplications  for  pro- 
tection from  calamities. — Philostorgii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  c.  18. 

'  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  viii.  c.  1,  2 ;  lib.  x.  c.  2.  De  Vita  Const,  lib.  ii.  c.  2 
c.  46. 

"  Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  18.  Sozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  c.  3,  c.  26.  The- 
odoriti  Hist  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  15,  c.  17  ;  lib.  v.  c.  39.  Philostorg.  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  iiL 
c.  2.     Theod.  Lect.  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  ii. 

'  Sozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  iii.  c.  14. 

*  Sozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  v.  c.  19.  Ibid.  lib.  vii.  c.  24. 

'  Sozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  v.  c.  20. 

^  Heron.  Epist.  ad  Eustach.     Baronii  Annal.  an  362,  no.  137-148. 

'  "  The  honor  of  discovering  the  forty  martyrs  was  assigned  to  the  princess  Pul- 
cheria,  the  sister  of  the  emperor ;  for  the  martyr  Thyrsis,  in  whose  commemoration 
a  temple  had  been  erected,  appeared  to  her  thrice,  indicated  where  they  were  bu- 
ried, and  directed  that  they  should  be  removed  to  his  basilica,  that  they  might  enjoy 
the  same  station  and  honor  ;  and  at  the  same  time  the  forty  robed  in  white  reveal- 
ed themselves  to  her." — Sozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ix.  c.  2.  Augustine  represents 
that  the  bodies  of  Gervasius  and  Protasius  at  Milan,  of  whose  existence  no  one  be- 
fore had  ever  heard,  were  revealed  to  Ambrose  in  a  dream. — De  Civit.  Dei,  lib.  Xxii. 
c.  8. 

"  It  was  decreed  by  the  fifth  council  of  Carthage  that  the  altars  erected  in  fields 


136  THE    FOURTH    SEAL. 

ed  as  necessaiy  to  the  consecration  of  places  of  worship,^  and 
relied  on  for  the  protection  of  cities,^  miraculous  answers  to 
prayers  offered  at  their  shrines  were  expected  and  imagined  to 
be  received,^  and  a  higher  trust  for  the  blessings  of  this  life  and 
for  salvation  reposed  in  the  creatures  thus  exalted  to  deities,  than 
in  the  Ruler  of  the  universe,*  and  the  great  favorers  and  propa- 

and  public  ways,  as  though  in  honor  of  martyrs,  where  it  was  proved  no  body  or 
relics  of  martyrs  had  been  interred,  should  be  demolished,  if  possible,  by  the  bish- 
opsof  those  places  ;  that  if  it  could  not  be  done  without  a  tumult,  they  should  ad- 
monish the  people  not  to  frequent  them  ;  and  that  no  monument  of  martyrs  should 
be  received  as  authentic,  except  where  a  body  or  some  relics  that  were  undoubted 
had  been  buried,  or  the  history  could  be  verified." — Labbei  Concil.  torn.  iii.  p.  971. 
The  removal,  decerption,  and  sale  of  relics  was  at  length  forbidden  by  law,  but 
permission  was  given  to  whoever  pleased  to  erect  edifices  for  the  veneration  of 
the  martyrs,  wherever  they  were  known  to  be  buried. — Cod.  Theod.  lib.  ix.  tit.  17, 
c   7. 

'  "  As  the  heretics  have  deprived  the  church  of  the  sight  of  the  venerable  im- 
ages, and  left  other  customs,  which,  both  according  to  the  Scriptures  and  tradition, 
ought  to  be  resumed  and  observed,  we  therefore  decree  that  a  deposite  be  made  of 
the  holy  relics  of  martyrs  in  whatever  temples  have  been  consecrated  witiiout  them, 
and  that  the  bishop  who  hereafter  consecrates  a  temple  without  holy  relics,  shall 
be  deposed  as  a  transgressor  of  ecclesiastical  traditions." — Labbei  Concil.  torn, 
xiii.  p.  751. 

Gregory  the  Great  assigns  it  as  a  reason  of  his  not  complying  with  the  request 
of  the  empress  Constantina,  that  he  would  send  her  the  head  of  St.  Paul  to  be  de- 
posited in  a  church  erected  to  his  honor,  that  the  bodies  of  Peter  and  Paul  flashed 
with  such  miracles  and  terrors  in  their  churches,  that  it  was  not  possible  to  approach 
them  even  for  prayer  without  the  utmost  alarm  ;  that  when  liis  predecessor  had 
desired  to  change  the  silver  that  was  over  the  sacred  remains  of  Peter,  though  it 
was  distant  more  than  fifteen  feet,  a  sign  appeared  to  him  of  no  small  terror;  and 
that  when  he  in  like  manner  wished  to  amend  something  over  the  body  of  Paul, 
as  it  was  necessary  to  make  an  excavation  near  the  sepulchre,  the  person  having 
charge  of  the  place  venturing  to  raise  some  bones  which  he  discovered  not  belong- 
ing to  it,  that  he  might  remove  them  to  another  place,  mournful  signs  appeared, 
and  he  suddenly  died. — Epist.  30,  lib.  iv.  Indie,  xii.  pp.  708,  709. 

"  Evagrii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  13.  Chrysostom  says  of  the  martyrs  of  Egypt, 
"  The  bodies  of  those  saints  fortify  the  city  more  effectually  for  us  than  impregna- 
ble walls  of  adamant,  and  like  towering  rocks  placed  around  on  every  side,  repel 
not  only  the  assaults  of  enemies  that  are  visible,  but  the  insidious  stratagems  also 
of  invisible  demons,  and  counteract  and  defeat  every  artifice  of  the  devil  as  easily 
as  a  strong  man  overturns  the  toys  of  children." — Homil.  70,  in  Mart.  Egypt,  torn, 
i.  p.  770. 

'  "  Remember  with  me  the  martyr,"  says  Basil,  "as  many  as  have  been  aided 
by  liim  through  dreams,  as  many  as  have  here  enjoyed  him  as  an  assistant  in 
prayer,  by  every  one  whom  when  invoked  he  has  aided  in  labors,  by  every  one 
whom  he  has  conducted  back  from  a  journey,  by  every  one  whom  he  has  raised 
up  from  sickness,  by  those  to  whom  he  has  given  back  children  that  had  died,  by 
those  whose  destined  period  of  Ufe  he  has  extended." — Homil.  xxvi.  de  Mart.  Mam. 
tom.  i.  p.  513. 

*  Gregory  Nazianzen  asserts  that  demons  were  expelled  and  diseases  healed  by 
the  apostles  and  others  who  were  martyred  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  and  who  were 
celebrated  by  honors  and  festivities  ;  and  represents  that  their  bodies  had  power 
equal  to  holy  souls,  whether  touched  or  worshipped,  and  drops  of  their  blood  and 


THE  FOURTH  SEAL.  137 

gators  of  this  debasing  idolatry  were  the  archpriests  of  the  church, 
Gregory  of  Naziansen,  Basil  of  Caesarea,  Epiphanius  of  Cyprus, 
Chrysostom  of  Constantinople,  Ambrose  of  Milan,  Augustine  of 
Hippo,  and  the  patriarchs  of  Rome. 

The  ascription  thus  of  miraculous  virtues  to  the  bodies  of  the 
dead,  naturally  led  to  an  equal  homage  of  their  spirits.  The 
invocation  of  the  saints  as  powerful  intercessors  with  God,  and 
able  to  avert  all  the  calamities  of  life,  and  confer  all  temporal  and 
spiritual  blessings,  was  accordingly  introduced  at  the  same  period 
and  by  the  same  teachers.  "  How  often,"  says  Basil  in  his 
homily  on  the  forty  martyrs,  "  have  you  labored  that  you  might 
find  one  entreating  the  Lord  for  you.  Here  are  forty  with  one 
voice  offering  prayer.  Where  two  or  three  are  assembled  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  there  is  he  in  the  midst  of  them.  But  where 
there  are  forty,  who  can  doubt  God's  presence  ?  Let  him  who  is 
afflicted  fly  to  the  forty  ;  let  him  who  is  rejoicing  recur  to  them  ; — 
the  one  that  he  may  obtain  release  from  his  troubles,  the  other 
that  his  prosperity  may  be  continued.  Here  a  pious  woman 
obtains  her  request  offering  prayer  for  children,  asking  the  return 
of  her  husband  on  a  journey,  and  health  when  sick.  Let  your 
petitions  be  confided  to  the  martyrs.'"  Gregory  Naziansen  said 
at  the  obsequies  of  his  father,  "  he  believed  he  now  fulfilled  the 
office  of  a  shepherd  to  his  flock  by  intercession,  in  a  iiigher  de- 
gree than  while  on  earth  as  a  teacher,  in  proportion  as  he  had 
approached  nearer  to  God,  inasmuch  as  he  had  shaken  off  the 

the  least  memorials  of  their  passion,  efficacy  equal  to  their  bodes. — Orat.  iii.  adv. 
Julianum,  torn.  i.  pp.  76,  77. 

Chrysostom  represents  that  God  being  gracious,  and  presenting  to  us  innumer- 
able motives  to  salvation,  marked  out  the  veneration  of  tiie  dead  among  others 
as  an  appropriate  method  of  inviting  us  to  virtue,  by  leaving  with  us  tiie  relics  of 
the  saints  ;  asserts  that  their  sepulchres  held  the  next  rank  in  power  after  the  word, 
to  excite  the  souls  of  those  who  beheld  them  to  an  equal  zeal ;  and  affirms  that 
whoever  by  chance  approaches  such  a  depository,  immediately  feels  a  clear  sensa- 
tion of  that  influence,  for  the  sight  of  the  coffin  strikes,  awes,  and  arouses  the  soul, 
and  causes  it  to  be  affi;cted,  precisely  as  though  the  dead  were  present,  visible,  and 
united  in  the  prayer. — Lib.  de  Bab.  torn.  i.  pp.  668,  669. 

He  says  of  the  martyrs  accordingly :  "  Let  us  frequently  go  to  them.  Let  us 
touch  their  coffins.  Let  us  embrace  their  relics  with  faith,  that  wo  may  derive 
from  them  some  blessing;  for  as  soldiers  showing  their  wounds  speak  witii  bold- 
ness to  the  king,  so  these  bearing  in  their  hands  their  heads  which  were  cut  off, 
are  able  to  obtain  whatever  they  ask  from  the  King  of  heaven.  Let  us  therefore 
go  there  with  strong  faith  and  fervent  desire,  and  from  the  sight  of  the  holy  mon- 
uments and  from  the  consideration  of  their  rewards,  gather  great  treasures  that 
we  may  be  able  to  pass  the  present  life  according  to  the  will  of  God,  sail  to  that 
port  with  much  merchandise,  and  attain  the  kingdom  of  heaven." — Homil.  40,  in 
Sanct.  Mart.  Juvent.  et  Max.  tom.  i.  pp.  488,  48'J. 

*  Homil.  XX.  iu  quadrag.  Martyr.     Tom.  i.  p.  459. 

18 


138  THE  FOURTH  SEAL. 

chains  of  the  body,  and  become  free  from  the  dregs  that  ob- 
structed his  spirit."^  Chrysostom  also  :  "  You  have  doubtless  a 
strong  affection  for  these  saints.  With  this  ardor  therefore  let 
us  prostrate  ourselves  before  their  relics ;  let  us  embrace  their 
urns,  for  the  shrines  of  the  martyrs  can  exert  a  great  power,  as 
their  bones  have  a  mighty  energy ;  and  not  only  on  the  day  of 
their  feast,  but  on  others  also  let  us  assiduously  apply  to  them, 
let  us  invoke  them,  let  us  entreat  them  to  be  our  patrons,  for 
they  have  great  boldness  not  only  in  this  life,  but  also  after  death, 
and  far  the  greatest  after  death,  for  they  now^  bear  the  marks  of 
Christ,  and  showing  their  stigmata  are  all-powerful  with  the 
Almighty.  Since,  then,  such  is  their  power  and  favor  with  God, 
by  assiduous  application  to  them  and  entreaty  we  shall  obtain 
through  them  the  compassion  of  God."^  The  eternal  Word  was 
thus  set  aside  as  the  intercessor,  his  sacrifice  and  obedience  re- 
jected as  the  ground  of  reliance  for  sanctification,  pardon,  and 
eternal  life,  and  creatures  helpless  and  guilty  exalted  in  his  place, 
and  treated  as  both  superior  to  him  in  merit,  and  as  exerting  a 
higher  influence  in  the  divine  government.  No  apostasy  from 
the  Almighty  can  be  more  absolute  than  this,  more  injurious  to 
his  rights,  or  more  fatal  to  the  apostate  himself.  It  is  to  reduce 
the  eternal  Word  below  the  guilty  creatures  whom  he  has  re- 
deemed, to  impute  his  peculiar  attributes,  prerogatives,  and 
agency  to  them,  and  to  trust  in  them  instead  of  him  for  the  in- 
finite blessings  which  he  alone  can  bestow. 

The  superstitious  regard  of  the  eucharistic  elements,  which  at 
length  gave  birth  to  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  and  the 
idolatry  of  the  mass,  had  its  origin  at  the  same  period  and  with 
the  same  great  prelates.  The  office  of  the  bread  and  wine  as 
symbols  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  was  exhibited  as  pro- 
foundly mysterious.  They  were  represented  as  fraught  with  a 
saving  and  mfraculous  power,  and  the  arts  of  declamation,  trick, 

'  Orat.  19,  torn.  i.  p.  288.  Gregory,  at  the  close  of  his  oration  in  commemora- 
tion of  Basil,  directly  invokes  him.  "  Look  down  on  us  from  heaven,  O  divine  and 
sacred  personage,  and  the  thorn  of  the  flesh  given  us  by  God  for  our  discipline 
either  by  thine  intercessions  repress,  or  persuade  that  we  may  bear  it  with  forti- 
tude, and  direct  our  whole  life  to  that  which  is  most  beneficial.  And  if  we  are  to 
remove,  receive  us  there  in  thy  holy  tabernacles,  that  living  together  and  more 
clearly  beholding  the  holy  and  blessed  trinity,  glimpses  of  which  we  have  attained 
here,  we  may  there  fix  our  desires  and  receive  the  reward  of  the  contests  which 
we  have  here  maintained  and  endured."     Tom.  i.  p.  373. 

'  Homii.  51,  de  Bern,  et  Prosd.  torn.  i.  p.  5G8,  569.  Similar  passages  might  be 
added  from  Augustine,  de  Civit.  Dei,  lib.  xxii.  c.  10  ;  Hilary,  Psalm  129,  p.  439  ; 
Epiphanius,  HiEres.  75,  and  the  other  principal  bishops  of  that  and  the  following 
ages. 


THE    FOURTH    SEAL.  139 

and  mystery  employed  to  render  them  objects  of  superstitious 
and  idolatrous  veneration  to  the  multitude.  Thus  Chrysostom  : 
"  But  there  is  still  opportunity  to  approach  that  fearful  table. 
Let  us  all  go  therefore  with  becoming  gravity  and  abstinence. 
Let  no  Judas  be  there,  let  no  malicious  person  be  there,  no  one 
having  venom,  nor  bearing  one  thing  on  the  lips,  but  another  in 
the  thoughts  :  for  Christ  himself  is  present  who  adorned  this 
table  ;  and  he  adorns  it  now  ;  for  it  is  not  man  who  causes  the 
elements  to  become  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  but  Christ 
himself  who  was  crucified  for  us.  The  priest  stands  and  goes 
through  the  form,  uttering  the  words,  but  the  power  and  the 
grace  are  of  God.  This,  he  says,  is  my  body.  That  utterance 
transforms  the  elements ;  and  as  the  voice  which  said  '  Increase 
ye  and  be  multiplied  and  fill  the  earth,'  though  spoken  but  once,  is 
efficacious  through  all  time,  so  this  voice  being  uttered  at  every 
table  in  the  churches  from  that  to  the  present  day  and  till  his 
advent,  works  the  completion  of  the  sacrifice."^  Gregory  the 
Great  said,  "  During  the  present  life,  which  we  see  is  passing 
away,  we  ought  to  continue  daily  to  present  the  offering  of  tears 
to  God,  and  nnmolate  the  sacrifice  of  his  flesh  and  blood  ;  for 
this  sacrifice  alone  can  save  the  soul  from  eternal  destruction, 
which  renews  to  us  through  the  mysteries  that  death  of  the  only- 
begotten,  who,  as  he  has  risen  from  the  dead,  dies  no  more,  and 
death  no  more  has  dominion  over  him.  While  however  in  him- 
self living  immortally  and  incorruptibly,  he  is  yet  in  the  mys- 
tery of  the  sacred  oblation  immolated  for  us  again  ;  for  in  that 
his  body  is  taken,  his  flesh  is  distributed  to  the  salvation  of  his 
people,  his  blood  is  poured  not  only  into  the  hands  of  the  unbe- 
lieving, but  into  the  mouths  of  the  believers.  Let  us  therefore 
consider  what  kind  of  sacrifice  that  is  which  for  our  absolution 
perpetually  imitates  the  passion  of  the  only-begotton  Son.  For 
what  believer  can  doubt  that  in  the  hour  of  immolation,  at  the 
voice  of  the  priest,  the  heavens  are  opened,  that  the  choirs  of 
angels  are  present  at  that  mystery  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  the  lowest 
are  associated  with  the  highest,  the  earthly  joined  with  the  celes- 
tial, and  the  visible  and  the  invisible  united  in  one."- 

At  length  in  1215,  Innocent  III.,  in  the  fourth  Lateran  council, 
formally  asserted  the  transubstantiation  of  the  bread  and  wine 
into  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  and  made  it  an  element  of  the 
papal  faith.  "  The  universal  church  of  the  believing,  out  of 
which  no  one  can  be  saved,  is  one,  in  which  Jesus  Christ  is  both 

'  Serin.  32,  de  proditione  Jud.  torn.  v.  p.  416. 
^  Dialog,  lib.  iv.  c.  58,  p.  472. 


140  THE    FOURTH    SEAL. 

the  priest  and  the  sacrifice,  whose  body  and  blood  are  truly  con- 
tained in  the  sacrament  of  the  altar  under  the  species  of  bread 
and  wine,  being  transubstantiated,  the  bread  into  his  body,  the 
wine  into  his  blood  by  divine  power,  so  that  to  perfect  the  mys- 
tery of  unity  we  may  receive  of  his  nature  that  which  he  as- 
sumed of  ours  ;  and  this  sacrament,  moreover,  no  one  can  make 
except  a  priest  who  has  been  rightly  ordained  according  to  the 
keys  of  the  church,  which  Jesus  Christ  himself  intrusted  to  the 
apostles  and  their  successors."^ 

The  homage  of  the  saints  naturally  led  to  the  introduction  of 
their  pictures  and  sculptures  into  the  basilicas  and  churches,  and 
thence  to  the  formal  worship  of  images.  Both  pictures  and 
statues  appear  to  have  gained  admission  to  the  churches  in  some 
degree,  even  before  the  close  of  the  fourth  century  f  became  not 
uncommon  in  the  fifth  f  received  the  countenance  of  the  popes 
of  Rome  •*  and  though  opposed,  and  prohibited  for  a  period  in 
the  eastern  empire,  at  length  in  the  reign  of  Irene  received  the 
sanction  of  the  second  council  of  Nicaea,  and  the  civil  govern- 
ment," and  have  ever  since  been  the  principal  objects  of  homage 
in  the  Greek  and  Latin  churches. 

Though  not  unknown  at  an  earlier  period,  it  was  not  until  this 
age  and  through  the  agency  chiefly  of  the  great  prelates,  Gregory 

'  Labbei  Concil.  tom.  xxii.  p.  982. 

^  The  council  of  Eliberis,  usually  referred  to  the  year  305,  prohibited  the  intro- 
duction of  pictures  into  the  churches,  or  delineations  of  the  objects  of  worship  on 
the  walls.  Labbei  Concil.  tom.  ii.  p.  2G4.  It  appears  from  the  representation  of 
Basil  in  his  Oration  on  Barlaam,  that  pictures  of  the  acts  and  suiFerings  of  the 
martyrs  were  at  that  period  placed  in  the  churches.     Tom.  i.  p.  443. 

^  Augustine  implies  that  there  were  in  his  day  many  of  Christ  and  the  apostles. 
Consens.  Evang.  i.  16.  Evagrius  relates  that  an  image  of  the  mother  of  Christ 
was  suspended  by  a  rope  in  the  prison  at  Antioch,  which  on  being  addressed  by  an 
unacceptable  suppliant,  turned  its  face  from  him.     Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  v.  c.  18. 

*  "  It  came  to  our  knowledge  lately  that  on  seeing  persons  adoring  the  images 
in  the  churches,  you  broke  them  and  threw  them  out,  and  we  approve  of  your 
wish  that  no  one  should  worship  that  which  is  made  with  hands,  but  suggest  that 
you  ought  not  to  have  broken  them  ;  for  pictures  are  used  in  the  churches  in  order 
that  they  who  are  unacquainted  with  letters  may  at  least  read,  by  looking  on  the 
walls,  what  they  are  not  able  to  read  in  books.  You  ought  therefore  to  preserve 
them,  but  forbid  the  people's  worshipping  them,  so  that  the  unlettered  may  have 
the  means  of  gaining  a  knowledge  of  history,  and  yet  not  sin  by  the  adoration  of  the 
paintings."     Gregorii  Mag.  Epist.  102,  lib.  i.\.  Ind.  ii. 

'  "  We  ordain  that  venerable  and  holy  images,  modelled  after  the  form  of  the 
venerable  and  life-giving  cross,  by  colors,  mosaic,  or  any  other  materials,  should 
be  dedicated  and  placed  in  the  consecrated  temples  of  God, — especially  the  image 
of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  that  of  our  spotless  queen  tlie  mother  of  God, 
of  the  venerable  angels,  and  finally  of  all  holy  men,  in  order  that  all  who  contem- 
plate them  may  come  to  the  memory  and  desire  of  their  prototypes  and  offer  them 
an  honorary  adoration."  Labbei  Concil.  tom.  xiii.  p.  730.  This  decree  was  sanc- 
tioaed  by  Hadrian,  bishop  of  Rome,  ibid.  pp.  536,  537. 


THE    FOURTH    SEAL.  141 

Nazianseu,  Ambrose,  Augustine,  Chrysostom,  and  the  popes, 
that  the  doctrine  of  purgatorial  fire  was  generally  received, 
prayers  offered  for  the  dead,  and  masses  in  order  to  their  deliv- 
erance from  punishment  and  admission  to  paradise,  which  in  the 
following  century  became  a  most  important  element  in  the  anti- 
christian  system  of  the  Latin  church,  and  was  made  the  means 
of  boundless  wealth  to  the  clergy  and  infinite  deception  to  the 
people. 

The  doctrine  was  held  in  the  days  of  Augustine,  that  souls 
are  benefited  by  supplicating  the  aid  of  the  martyrs.  "  When 
the  place  where  the  body  of  a  beloved  friend  is  buried,  is  asso- 
ciated with  the  name  of  some  venerated  martyr,  affection  prompts 
the  commendation  of  his  soul  to  that  martyr ;  and  when  this 
affection  is  exhibited  to  the  dead  by  believers  who  were  beloved, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  it  is  beneficial  to  those  who  while  living 
acquired  a  merit  of  such  aids  after  this  life."^  The  doctrine  of 
purgatorial  fire  was  generally  held  also,  "  Some  suffer  tem- 
porary punishments  in  this  life  only ;  others  after  death,  others 
both  now  and  then,  before  however  the  last  judgment.  But  all 
who  endure  temporary  punishments  after  death,  are  not  to  enter 
the  everlasting  punishments  that  are  to  follow  that  judgment ; 
for  to  some  that  which  is  not  remitted  in  this,  is  to  be  remitted 
in  the  future  world."^  In  the  age  of  Gregory  the  Great,  the 
practice  was  introduced  of  offering  masses  for  the  expiation  of 
souls  in  purgatory.  "  If  offences  are  not  unpardonable  after 
death,  the  sacred  oblation  of  the  life-giving  victim  is  accustomed 
to  aid  souls  much  even  after  death,  so  that  they  sometimes  seem 
to  desire  it."^ 

It  was  decreed  by  a  French  council  in  813,  that  prayers  should 

'  Augvistini  de  Cura  pro  Mort.  c.  6,  p.  519. 

'  August,  de  Civit.  Dei,  lib.  xxi.  c.  13  ;  lib.  xxii.  c.  10. 

'  He  goes  on  to  relate,  that  it  being  discovered  that  a  sick  monk  in  his  monastery 
had  violated  the  rules  by  secreting  three  pieces  of  gold,  he  directed  the  fraternity 
not  to  give  him  any  aid  at  the  moment  of  death,  but  to  denounce  him  as  an  out- 
cast, and  bury  him,  not  with  the  brethren,  but  on  a  dung-heap;  that  thirty  days 
after  his  departure,  he  began  to  pity  his  dead  brother,  to  dwell  on  his  punishment 
with  great  pain,  and  to  inquire  whether  there  were  any  means  of  deliverance,  and 
calling  to  him  Pretiosus,  the  overseer  of  the  monastery,  said  sadly,  "  It  is  a  long 
time  that  the  brother  who  died  has  been  tortured  in  the  fire.  We  ought  to  be- 
stow on  him  some  token  of  love,  and  yield  him  such  aid  as  we  can  that  he  may 
be  delivered.  Go  therefore  and  offer  sacrifice  for  him  for  the  next  thirty  days, 
taking  care  that  no  day  passes  without  the  immolation  of  the  salutary  victim  for 
his  absolution  ;  that  Pretiosus  departed  and  obeyed  his  directions,  and  at  the  end 
of  the  thirty  days  the  dead  brother  appeared  in  vision  to  one  of  the  fraternity,  and 
on  being  asked,  How  are  you  ?  answered  that  he  had  been  in  mi.sery  up  to  that  time, 
but  was  now  happy,  as  he  had  that  day  received  the  communion."  Gregorii 
Dial.  lib.  iv.  c.  55. 


142  THE    FOURTH    SEAL. 

be  daily  offered  for  the  dead  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass.  "  It 
seems  proper  that  in  all  solemnities  of  the  mass,  the  Lord  should 
be  invoked  for  the  spirits  of  the  dead." — "  Let  the  holy  church 
therefore  retain  this  ancient  custom  and  commend  to  the  Lord  in 
the  solemnization  of  the  mass  and  other  prayers,  the  spirits  of 
those  who  sleep,  as  Augustine  said  ;  supplications  are  not  to 
be  omitted  for  the  spirits  of  the  dead  which  the  church  under- 
takes to  present  for  all  who  have  died  in  the  Christian  and 
Catholic  society,  and  if  their  names  are  not  recited,  in  a  general 
commemoration,  so  that  to  those  who  left  no  parents,  children,  or 
other  relatives  or  friends  for  that  office,  it  may  be  discharged  by 
the  common  holy  mother."^  This  rule  was  incorporated  by 
Gratian  in  his  collection  of  the  canons,  and  became  the  law  of 
the  Latin  church.^  And  finally,  the  council  of  Trent  declared 
.the  sacrifice  of  the  mass  to  be  propitiatory,  as  well  for  the  dead 
as  the  living,  and  decreed  that  it  should  be  offered  not  only  for 
the  sins  of  living  believers,  but  for  the  dead  in  Christ  who  had 
not  yet  become  fully  purified.^ 

To  this  pestiferous  combination,  was  at  length  formally  added 
in  the  Latin  church,  the  doctrine  implied  in  these  errors,  of  jus- 
tification by  one's  own  righteousness,  or  the  merits  of  other  crea- 
tures ;  of  satisfaction  for  one's  sins  by  penance  and  the  sufferings 
of  purgatory,  by  which  the  obedience  and  expiation  of  Christ 
were  not  only  denied  their  proper  office,  but  wholly  set  aside  ; 
and  finally  an  ascription  to  the  pope  of  the  throne  and  rights  of 
God,  and  power  on  his  own  conditions  to  forgive  sins,  and  legal- 
ize and  sanction  all  forms  of  transgression  both  of  divine  and  Im- 
man  laws. 

Sozomen  affirms  that  the  bishops  who  were  summoned  by 
Constanline  to  explain  his  vision  of  the  cross,  taught  him  that  an 
expiation  for  sins  and  means  of  salvation  were  provided  for  of- 
fenders, by  initiation  into  the  mysteries  of  baptism  and  the  eucha- 
rist,  and  abstinence  thereafter  from  sin.  As  few  however,  and 
the  godlike  only,  were  adequate  to  that,  they  taught  that  a  second 
expiation  was  instituted  by  penance.'* 

The  prelates  of  the  fourth  age  began  to  release  offenders,  on 
account  of  illness  and  other  causes,  from  fasting  and  other  pen- 
ances prescribed  in  order  to  readmission  to  communion.*  On  in- 
troducing the  doctrine  of  expiation  by  the  mass,  they  undertook 

'  Labbei  Concil,  torn.  xiv.  p.  102. 

'  Decret.  Gratiaiii  de  Consecrstt.  dist.  i.  c.  72. 

'  Concil.  Trid.  sess.  xxii.  c.  2. 

*  Sozotnoui  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c  3.  *  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  ii.  pp.  515,  674 


THE    FOURTH    SEAL.  143 

to  make  satisfaction  for  sins  by  that  offering,  and  release  offend- 
ers from  liability  to  punishment  for  the  crimes  they  had  commit- 
ted,' and  at  length  completed  the  system  of  indulgences  by  grant- 
ing licenses  to  commit  sin  in  all  the  forms  the  purchasers  of  the 
right  might  desire,  without  obnoxiousness  to  punishment.'^ 

It  was  thus  these  great  chiefs  of  the  hierarchies  that  gave  birth 
to  this  apostate  religion.  They  have  in  every  subsequent  age 
been  quoted  as  authority  for  its  impious  doctrines  and  idolatrous 
rites,  and  though  the  great  body  of  the  subordinate  clergy  united 
in  its  propagation,  it  was  largely  through  their  example  and  dic- 
tation. Had  it  not  been  for  their  agency  it  could  never  have  sup- 
planted the  religion  of  Christ,  and  had  they  at  any  period  united 
in  its  rejection,  they  might  have  arrested  its  prevalence,  and  per- 
haps banished  it  from  the  church. 

Such  in  this  relation  is  the  verification  which  for  fifteen  hun- 
dred years  they  have  presented  of  the  symbol,  breathing  into  the 
atmosphere  of  the  church  a  deadly  blast,  that  like  the  pests  of 
the  fourth  century,  has  tainted  all  who  inhaled  it  with  the  ele- 
ments of  spiritual  death. 

■  "  The  church  and  theological  schools  use  the  term  indulgence,  to  denote  a  re- 
■nission  of  the  punishment  that  often  remains  to  be  suffered,  after  the  remission  of  a 
fault  and  reconciliation  has  been  obtained,  by  the  sacrament  of  penance,  which  re- 
mission the  supreme  pontiffs,  in  paternal  condescension  to  their  children  and  pity  for 
their  infirmity,  are  accustomed  to  concede  at  certain  times,  not  however  without 
some  reasonable  cause." — Bellarmini  de  Indulg.  c.  i. 

'  "  The  fourth  species  of  indulgence  is  the  remission  of  penance  or  punishment, 
which  began  to  be  introduced  in  the  tenth  century,  in  view  of  some  laborious  work 
to  be  undertaken  of  obvious  utility  to  the  church,  and  was  usually  proposed  in  this 
form  :  Whoever  shall  perform  this  work,  or  endeavor  to  his  utmost  to  perform  it, 
shall  obtain  a  remission  of  all  sins." — Van  Espen  de  Indulg.  c.  i.  s.  9. 

"From  this  indulgence  another  species  followed  ;  for  since  it  was  Eissumed  that  it 
was  lawful  to  release  wholly  from  penance  and  grant  a  remission  of  all  sins  to  those 
who  contributed  money  for  an  expedition  against  infidels  or  heretics,  it  did  not  ap- 
pear why  it  might  not  be  lawful  also  to  remit  the  whole  or  at  least  a  part  of  pen- 
ance, to  him  who  should  bestow  a  gift  towards  any  other  pious  undertaking,  such  as 
the  erection  or  reparation  of  a  church,  monastery,  hospital,  or  any  other  ecclesiasti- 
cal building." — Van  Espen  de  Indulg.  c.  i.  s.  14. 

In  the  twelfth  century  another  formula  was  introduced,  by  which  absolution  was 
given  to  those  who  devoted  property  to  pious  uses,  visited  certain  churches,  or  reci- 
ted certain  prayers. — Van  Espen  de  Indulg.  c.  i.  s.  14.  They  who  undertook  a 
crusade  for  the  conquest  of  the  Holy  Land  from  the  Turks,  were  promised  by  Urban 
II.  and  Eugenius  III.  a  release  from  all  penance  for  their  sins,  and  if  death  overtook 
them,  a  full  remission  and  the  rewards  of  eternal  life. — Bullarii  Mag.  torn.  i.  p.  37- 
Baronii  Annal  anno  1095.  So  late  as  1695,  Innocent  XII  granted  a  plenary  in- 
dulgence and  remission  of  all  their  sins  to  all  believers  of  either  sex,  who,  truly  pen- 
itent, making  confession  and  receiving  the  eucharist,  should  visit  the  church  of  St. 
Francis  of  Assissi  on  any  day  in  the  year,  and  offer  prayer  for  the  concord  of  the 
Christian  princes,  the  extirpation  of  heresy,  and  the  exaltation  of  holy  mother 
church. — Bullarii  Mag.  torn.  vi.  p.  262. 


144  THE  FOURTH  SEAL. 

II,  They  employed  as  an  instrument  of  destruction,  the  sword 
of  the  second  horseman,  the  symbol  of  the  spiritual  sword,  or 
ecclesiastical  authority  by  which  men  are  subjected  to  spiritual 
death.  As  death  by  the  sword,  in  distinction  from  famine  and 
disease,  is  a  death  by  violence,  so  a  resembling  spiritual  death 
must  be  by  an  analogous  violence,  in  distinction  from  a  depriva- 
tion of  knowledge  which  is  symbolized  by  famine,  or  an  infusion 
of  false  doctrine  denoted  by  pestilence.  And  as  when  a  fatal 
wound  is  inflicted  by  the  sword,  the  body  by  its  own  constitution 
works  an  immediate  death  by  the  expulsion  of  the  blood,  so,  in 
order  to  analogy,  the  wound  that  produces  spiritual  death,  must 
be  such  that  the  subject  of  it  works  his  destruction  necessarily 
by  the  rejection  and  abjuration  of  the  means  of  life,  in  contradis- 
tinction from  being  deprived  of  spiritual  sustenance  on  the  one 
hand  and  inhaling  a  pest  on  the  other.  And  such  is  a  compul- 
sory apostasy,  or  abjuration  of  essential  truth  at  the  dictation  of 
authority.  Its  effect  on  the  soul  is  like  that  of  a  deadly  wound  on 
the  body.  Every  act  under  it  is  a  rejection  of  God  and  his  sal- 
vation, removes  the  spirit  to  a  greater  distance  from  him,  and  pre- 
cipitates it  to  a  more  inevitable  and  speedy  death. 

And  the  great  chiefs  of  the  hierarchies  have  inflicted  death  in 
this  manner  on  a  vast  scale.  The  persuasion  that  bishops  have 
legislative  authority  over  the  faith  and  worship  of  the  church, 
and  that  the  pope  is  the  vicar  of  Christ  and  of  absolute  power  to 
determine  doctrines  and  rites,  placed  the  Greek  and  Latin  com- 
munions at  the  will  of  the  great  prelates  of  those  churches,  who 
held  the  power  of  summoning  councils,  and  determining  and  ex- 
ecuting decrees  ;  and  it  has  been  through  that  medium  that  they 
have  wrought  their  mightiest  effects.  Authority  has  been  the 
great  sword  by  which  they  have  at  every  period  struck  down  the 
objections  of  reason,  awed  conscience  into  silence,  and  pierced  the 
captive  and  helpless  soul  with  a  wound  that  worked  inevitable 
and  speedy  death.  It  was  thus  by  the  decrees  and  anathemas 
of  the  council  of  Antioch  in  the  reign  of  Constantius,  that  Euse- 
bius  patriarch  of  Constantinople  endeavored  to  impose  the  Arian 
faith  on  the  church.^  It  was  thus  by  authority  that  Tarasius,  pa- 
triarch of  that  city  in  the  eighth  century,  endeavored  to  constrain 
the  worship  of  images.^  It  was  his  own  and  the  authority  of 
councils,  that  Gregory  VII.  of  Rome  and  his  successors  used 
to  compel  the  acknowledgment  of  their  usurped  powers,  and  the 
ascription  to  them  of  honors  that  are  due  only  to  God.^      It  was 

'  Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  c.  8,  c.    10.       "  Labbei  Concil.tom.  xli.  p.  1120-1128. 
'  Labbei  Coiicil.  torn.  xx. 


THE    FOURTH    SEAL.  145 

by  that  that  in  the  fifteenth  century,  Pius  IV.  strove  to  force  back 
into  apostasy  the  multitudes  in  the  Latin  church  who  had  embraced 
the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation,  and  retain  them  in  a  hopeless 
vassalage  to  error ;'  and  by  that  that  from  age  to  age  myriads  and 
millions  who  would  have  survived  the  famine  and  pestilence,  have 
been  precipitated  to  destruction.  The  renunciation  of  the  most 
indisputable  and  essential  truths,  and  assent  to  palpable  and  ab- 
horrent errors,  by  Hosius,  Berenger,  Galileo,  and  thousands 
of  others  at  the  dictation  of  councils  and  popes,  the  facility  with 
which  the  great  body  of  the  inferior  clergy  and  whole  nations 
have  changed  sides  as  power  passed  from  the  leaders  of  one  party 
to  those  of  another,  and  the  abject  submission  with  which  the  tal- 
ented and  learned  of  the  Catholic  communion  accommodate  their 
creed  to  the  decrees  of  the  pope,  are  emphatic  exemplifications 
of  the  resistlessness  of  the  power  which  this  authority  exerts  over 
their  faith. 

III.  They  employed  the  agency  also  symbolized  by  the  third 
horseman,  to  spread  death  throughout  their  territory  ;  withhold- 
ing the  great  truths  of  the  gospel  from  their  people,  and  subject- 
ing them  to  a  famine  of  the  knowledge  which  is  essential  to  spir- 
itual life. 

The  agencies  by  which  the  church  was  reduced  to  a  debasing 
and  fatal  ignorance  of  God,  of  the  nature  of  religion,  and  the 
method  of  salvation  through  Christ,  in  the  third  century,  were 
continued  in  the  fourth  and  following  ages,  and  carried  to  a  great- 
er extent.  Fasting,  celibacy,  and  the  ignorance,  debasement,  and 
fanaticism  of  a  solitary  and  ascetic  life,  were  rendered  by  the  ex- 
travagant commendations  lavished  on  them  by  Athanasius,  Basil, 
Gregory  Naziansen,  Ambrose,  Epiphanius,  Chrysostom,  Cyril 
of  Jerusalem,  Augustine,  and  the  bishops  of  Rome,  the  fashiona- 
ble religion.  The  Scriptures  if  not  more  neglected,  were  far  more 
perverted,  and  made  a  fountain  of  darkness  rather  than  hght,  by 
a  wanton  prostitution  to  the  support  of  the  false  doctrines  and 
idolatrous  worship  introduced  by  those  prelates  ;^  and  the  awe, 
the  faith  and  the  hope  of  the  church  drawn  from  God  to  relics, 
the  tombs  of  prophets  and  martyrs,  and  redeemed  and  angelic 
spirits.  But  on  the  substitution  for  the  Latin  tongue,  of  the  lan- 
guages of  the  conquering  nations  throughout  the  western  empire, 
the  light  of  divine  truth  was  almost  wholly  withdrawn  from  the 

'  Pii  iv.  Bui.  Bup.  Jurament.  profess,  fidei. 

'  Photius  in  his  history  of  the  Pauhcians,  represents  the  Greek  clerjry  of  the  sev- 
enth century,  as  having  taught  that  the  Scriptures  were  designed  only  for  their  pe- 
rusal, not  for  the  laity. — Photii  Contra  Manich.  lib.  i.  pp.  100, 101. 

19 


146  THE    FOURTH    SEAL. 

great  mass  of  the  people.  The  Scriptures  were  not  allowed  for 
ages  to  be  translated  into  those  dialects,' public  worship  was  con- 
ducted and  instruction  given  only  in  Latin,  which  soon  became 
unknown  not  only  to  the  people  at  large,  but  to  many  of  the  cler- 
gy, and  the  great  essentials  of  Christianity  were  as  completely 
swept  from  the  knowledge  of  the  multitude  as  though  they  had 
never  been  revealed.  Gregory  VII.  forbade  the  celebration 
of  worship  by  the  churches  of  Bohemia  in  the  Sclavonian  dialect.^ 
It  was  required  by  the  council  of  Trent  to  be  conducted  in  theLatin 
tongue,^  and  the  Scriptures  have  for  ages  been  generally  with- 
held from  the  people.* 

IV.  And  finally  they  employed  in  this  work  of  destruction  the 
civil  rulers  of  the  ancient  and  modern  empire,  symbolized,  as 
will  be  shown  in  the  exposition  of  the  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and 
other  chapters,  by  the  wild  beasts  of  the  earth. 

The  death  inflicted  through  their  agency  is  like  that  wrought 
directly  by  the  horseman  himself,  a  spiritual,  not  a  corporeal 
death,  and  is  inflicted  by  authority,  not  by  the  sword. 

The  right  of  legislating  over  the  church,  and  dictating  its  faith 
and  worship,  was  formally  assumed  by  Constantino,  and  at  least 
generally,  if  not  universally,  assented  to  by  the  bishops  of  the 
age.  The  emperors  assembled  councils,  they  ratified  and  gave 
legal  force  to  their  canons,  they  deposed  and  appointed  bishops 
at  their  will,  and  punished  the  violation  of  their  decrees  in  re- 
spect to  religion  like  the  greatest  civil  crimes,  by  banishment, 
confiscation,  torture,  and  death.  In  the  rivalries  accordingly, 
and  contests  of  the  bishops  with  one  another  in  the  fourth,  fifth, 
and  following  ages,  they  continually  appealed  to  the  emperors  to 
determine  their  disputes  and  give  efficacy  to  their  will,  and  as 
the  one  or  the  other  party  rose  into  supremacy,  invoked  and  em- 

■^  The  council  of  Toulouse  in  1229  denied  the  laity  the  use  and  possession  of  the 
•Scriptures.  "  The  laity  should  not  be  allowed  to  have  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  except  perhaps  a  Psalter  or  Breviary  for  public  worship,  or  the  Hours  of 
the  blessed  Mary  ;  and  we  most  strictly  forbid  their  havinjj  those  permitted  books 
translated  into  the  vulgar  tongue." — Labbei  Concil.  torn,  xxiii.  p.  197. 

^  "  Y-our  nobility  has  requested  that  we  would  allow  the  public  service  to  be  cel- 
ebrated in  the  Sclavonian  language.  You  should  know  that  wo  can  by  no  means 
favor  your  petition.  It  is  clear  to  those  who  consider  it,  that  it  lias  pleased  the  Al- 
mighty that  the  Scriptures  should  be  obscure  in  some  places,  lest  if  tliey  were  plain 
to  all,  they  should  be  despised,  or  lead  to  error  if  ill  understood  by  common  people. 
We  therefore,  by  the  authority  of  the  blessed  Peter,  prohibit  what  you  have  un- 
wisely asked,  and  command  you  to  resist  that  presumption  with  all  your  power  to 
the  honor  of  the  Omnipotent." — Gregorii  Epist.  11,  lib.  vii.  Labbei  torn,  xx 
p.  296. 

'  Sess.  xxii.  c.  8.  *  Bellarmini  de  Verbo,  lib.  ii.  c.  15. 


THE  FOURTH   SEAL.  147 

ployed  the  imperial  authority  to   compel   their   antagonists  to 
adopt  their  faith  and  conform  to  their  worship. 

Thus  Macedonius,  the  Arian  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  im- 
mediately on  his  accession  to  power,  employed  the  authority  of 
Constantius  and  troops  to  force  dissentients  from  his  creed  to 
conformity,  and  surpassed  even  the  most  cruel  of  the  pagan  per- 
secutors in  the  ingenuity  and  barbarity  of  the  tortures  by  which 
he  endeavored  to  overcome  their  constancy.^  His  followers  in 
like  manner  excited  Valens  to  persecute  those  who  refused  to 
communicate  with  their  party .^  Tlieodosius  and  his  sons,  on 
the  other  hand,  restored  the  churches  to  the  orthodox,  and  drove 
the  Arians  from  the  city  who  refused  to  unite  in  their  worship  f 
and  at  length  prohibited,  by  the  severest  penalties,  all  of  whatever 
name  who  dissented  from  the  established  religion,  from  erecting 
churches,  holding  separate  assemblies,*  or  ordaining  ministers  ;^ 
deprived  them  of  the  right  of  inheriting  or  transmitting  property 
by  will,"  excluded  them  from  service  in  the  palace  and  army,' 
banished  them  from  the  cities  and  villages,^  confiscated  their 
property,^  and  endeavored  by  every  species  of  constraint,  forfeit- 
ure, and  death  itself,  to  force  them  to  conform  to  the  nationalized 
religion .'"  The  dictation  and  enforcement  of  the  faith  of  the 
party  in  power  on  dissentients  by  civil  authority,  was  approved 
by  Ambrose,"  Augustine,'^  and  the  other  bishops  of  Africa, 
and  was  ever  after  employed  by  the  dominant  party.  All  the 
great  errors  of  the  apostate  church  were  accordingly  legalized 
by  imperial  authority,  and  given  through  that  to  gain  a  general 
prevalence.  The  veneration  of  rehcs  was  legalized  by  Theodo- 
sius  ;  the  usurpations  of  the  patriarchs  by  Constantine,  Theodo- 
sius,  and  Marcian  ;  monkery  and  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  by 
a  long  succession  of  emperors  ;  the  invocation  of  saints  and  wor- 
ship of  images  by  Constantine  and  Irene ;  the  primacy  of  the 
pope  by  Justinian.  In  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  the 
assumption  by  the  popes  of  authority  over  the  whole  Latin 
church,  —  power  to  appoint  to  all  vacant  benefices,  to  determine 
all  ecclesiastical  causes,  to  depose  bishops,  to  legislate  over  the 
church,  to  rescind  and  confirm  civil  laws,  to  dethrone  princes,  to 

'  Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  11.  c.  27.     Sozomeni  Hist  Eccl.  lib.  viii.  c.  18. 
»  Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  iv.  c.  2,  9,  16. 

*  Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  i.  1.  3.     Socratis  H.  E.  lib.  v.  c.  7. 

*  Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  v.  I.  11,  15,  26,  30.  »  Ibid.  1.  22. 

*  Ibid.  1.  17,  23, 25.        '  Ibid.  1.  29,  42,  48.  •  Ibid.  I.  18,  20,  30,  34. 
»  Ibid.  1.  44,  58.            '»  Ibid.  1.  51,  52,  53,  56,  60. 

"  Amhrosii  Epist.  29,  ad  Theodos. ;  34  Orat.  de  Exitu  Theodos. 

"  Augustini  Lib.  ad  Donat.  c.  17,  s.  22,  tom.  ix.     Optati,  Lb.  ii.  c.  vi.  p.  63. 


148  THE  FOURTH  SEAL. 

transfer  kingdoms  and  crowns  to  whom  they  pleased,  was  rati- 
fied and  legaHzed  by  most  of  the  governments  of  Europe  ;  and 
the  civil  authority  has  been  employed  accordingly  by  the  popes 
to  force  into  submission  to  their  sway  every  body  of  dissenters 
that  has  appeared  in  the  empire  ;  the  Paulicians,  the  Albigenses, 
the  Waldenses,  the  Wicklifites,  the  Lollards,  the  Bohemians,  the 
Protestants  of  every  nation  and  name.  How  vast  the  power  is 
which  the  civil  rulers  have  thus  exerted,  is  seen  from  the  fact 
that  chiefly  through  their  agency  Protestantism  made  no  progress 
after  the  Council  of  Trent,  but  rapidly  declined,  was  soon  exter- 
minated from  Portugal,  Spain,  Italy,  and  the  islands  of  the  Med- 
iterranean, and  for  generations  has  been  reduced  to  a  shadow  in 
some  of  the  cantons  of  Switzerland,  and  in  the  empires  of  Aus- 
tria and  France. 

In  every  relation  this  symbol  has  thus  met  a  conspicuous  veri- 
fication in  the  great  heads  of  the  hierarchies,  especially  in  those 
of  the  Greek  and  Latin  church. 

Power  was  given  to  this  destroyer  over  a  fourth  part  of  the 
earth,  by  which  doubtless  the  Roman  empire  is  meant,  the  terri- 
tory over  which  both  the  heads  of  the  hierarchies  and  the  civil 
rulers  whom  the  wild  beasts  denote,  had  dominion. 

The  truth  of  this  construction  is  confirmed  by  the  incongrui- 
ties that  mark  all  other  expositions.  Grotius,  Dr.  Hammond, 
Eichhorn,  Rosenmuller,  regard  the  horseman  as  pestilence.  But 
that  is  to  substitute  the  instrument  for  the  actor ; — disease,  the 
ordinary  cause  of  death,  being  the  peculiar  means  by  which  he 
inflicts  it,  in  contradistinction  from  its  extraordinary  causes,  the 
sword,  famine,  and  wild  beasts.  They  also  regard  the  death 
which  he  inflicts  as  a  corporeal  death,  and  the  instruments  those 
literally  which  are  enumerated  in  the  passage,  which  is  to  ex- 
hibit the  symbol  and  the  thing  symbolized  as  of  the  same  spe- 
cies, and  is  in  contradiction  to  analogy.  And  finally  they  ex- 
hibit the  events  of  the  Jewish  insurrections  under  Claudius,  or 
war  under  Nero  and  Vespasian,  as  its  fulfilment ;  which  is  to  as- 
sume either  that  the  Apocalypse  was  written  long  after  the  events 
denoted  by  the  seal  had  taken  place,  or  to  assign  a  wholly  unau- 
thorized and  incredible  date  to  the  visions. 

Mr.  Mede,  Dr.  More,  Mr.  Daubuz,  Mr.  Jurieu,  Mr,  Lowman, 
Mr.  Whiston,  Bishop  Newton,  Mr.  Elliott,  and  many  others,  ex- 
hibit essentially  the  same  views  of  the  symbol,  representing  the 
death  which  it  foreshows  as  corporeal,  the  instruments  those  lit- 
erally which  the  passage  recites,  and  the  wars,  famines,  pesti- 
lences, and  ravages  by  wild  beasts,  by  which  the  Roman  em- 


THE    FOURTH    SEAL.  149 

pire  was  afflicted  from  Maximin  to  Valerian,  as  the  fulfilment ; 
which  is  in  like  manner  to  set  aside  their  symbolic  character, 
and  make  the  representative  and  thing  represented  of  the  same 
species.  If  the  wild  beasts  of  this  passage  are  to  be  taken 
literally,  why  are  not  those  also  of  the  thirteenth  and  other 
chapters  ?  Or  on  what  ground,  if  it  be  denied  to  this,  can  a 
symbolical  character  be  ascribed  to  any  other  portions  of  the 
book? 

Mr.  Brightman  dissents  from  their  views  only  in  admitting 
that  the  wild  beasts  may  have  a  symbolic  meaning,  and  denote 
the  tyrannical  emperors  of  that  period. 

Vitringa  founds  his  interpretation  on  the  same  principles  also, 
but  exhibits  the  Saracens  and  Turks  as  the  destroyers  whom  the 
symbol  denotes. 

Cocceius  exhibits  the  rider  as  the  sorceress  of  the  seventeenth 
chapter,  and  the  death  she  inflicts  as  spiritual,  but  the  grave  as 
the  kings  and  princes  who  support  her  by  their  influence  and 
compel  their  subjects  to  listen  to  her  seduction.  But  the  latter 
is  against  analogy.  As  this  destroyer  of  natural  life  or  of  bodies, 
is  a  symbol  of  destroyers  of  spiritual  life  or  souls,  so  the  grave 
in  which  dead  bodies  are  placed,  is  a  symbol  of  the  world  of 
darkness  into  which  lost  souls  descend.  There  is  no  such  re- 
semblance between  the  grave  and  usurping  rulers  who  employ 
their  power  in  compelling  their  subjects  to  idolatry,  as  fits  it  to 
represent  them  in  that  relation.  They  are  living  agents  ;  the 
grave  is  wholly  passive. 

Mr.  Faber  regards  the  horseman  as  a  symbol  of  the  Roman 
empire,  and  those  of  the  preceding  seals  as  representatives  of 
the  empires  of  Babylonia,  Media,  and  Greece.  That,  however, 
is  in  the  first  place  to  treat  the  visions  as  exhibiting  the  past  in 
place  of  the  future,  which  is  expressly  against  the  title  of  the 
book,  and  the  representation  by  the  Redeemer  that  that  which 
was  to  be  shown  to  the  apostle,  was  what  was  shortly  to  come 
to  pass,  not  what  had  taken  place  in  former  ages  ;  and  is  to  ren- 
der the  import  of  the  whole  series  of  symbols  totally  uncertain. 
If  those  under  the  first  four  seals  relate  to  past  ages  and  empires, 
what  certainty  is  there  that  many  of  the  others  are  not  merely 
historic,  instead  of  prophetical  ?  How  is  it  to  be  determined 
that  any  species  of  them  respect  the  future  ?  Next,  it  exhibits 
living  beings  as  symbols  of  mere  territories,  which  is  against 
analogy.  And  finally  it  is  founded  avowedly  on  tlic  assumption, 
though  inconsistently  with  the  interpretation  of  the  horseman  as 
denoting  an  empire,  that  the  symbol  and  that  which  is  symbol- 


150  THE    FOURTH    SEAL. 

ized  are  of  the  same  species  ;  or  that  a  warrior  symbol  denotes 
a  military  power. 

Mr.  Keith  regards  the  symbols  of  the  first  four  seals  as  repre- 
senting four  religions,  Christianity,  Mahometanism,  Popery,  and 
Infidelity,  which  is  to  make  living  agents  symbols  of  systems  of 
doctrine  or  thoughts  and  opinions,  and  is  wholly  against  analogy. 
What  resemblance  is  there  between  a  horse  and  rider,  and  pro- 
positions or  modes  of  worship  true  or  false  ?  Living  agents  are 
symbols  only  of  intelligent  agents ;  never  of  abstractions,  char- 
acteristics, thoughts,  or  acts. 

Dean  Woodhouse  approaches  nearer  a  just  construction,  as  he 
regards  the  church,  not  the  civil  empire,  as  the  scene  of  the  sym- 
bolized agency,  and  its  teachers  and  rulers  as  the  destroyers. 
He  errs  like  the  others,  however,  in  regarding  the  death  as  cor- 
poreal, which  is  to  make  the  symbol  and  thing  symbolized  of  the 
same  species  ;  and  exhibits  hades  not  as  the  grave,  but  the  recep- 
tacle of  the  spirits  of  the  dead,  which  is  to  make  the  symbol  the 
representative  of  itself,  and  is  therefore,  it  being  in  this  instance 
unnecessary,  a  deviation  from  analogy. 

Mr.  Stuart  interprets  the  first  four  seals  as  denoting  the  inva- 
sion of  Judea  by  the  Romans  under  Nero,  and  slaughter,  famine, 
and  pestilence  as  attendants  of  that  war ;  but  denies  that  the 
symbolic  agents  are  to  be  regarded  as  representing  particular 
agents,  or  the  symbolic  events  particular  events.  But  that  in 
the  first  place  overthrows  his  application  of  the  prophecy  to  Ju- 
dea. If  the  agents  are  not  representative  of  specific  agents,  nor 
the  effects  of  particular  effects,  by  what  law  can  the  scene  be 
regarded  as  the  representative  of  a  particular  scene  ?  Even  if 
right  in  translating  yri,  the  land,  instead  of  the  earth,  he  clearly, 
on  his  rule  of  construction,  can  with  no  more  propriety  assume 
that  Judea  was  the  theatre  of  the  invasion,  bloodshed,  famine, 
and  pestilence,  than  any  other  land  or  lands  in  which  those  ca- 
lamities have  since  taken  place.  The  symbols  can  then  be  con- 
sidered as  only  showing  that  there  was  to  be  an  invasion  some- 
where, somewhere  bloodshed,  somewhere  famine,  and  somewhere 
pestilence. 

But  his  denial  that  any  correspondence  is  to  be  sought  be- 
tween the  symbolized  and  symbolic  agents,  is  equally  subversive 
of  his  application  of  the  prophecy,  and  of  the  whole  representa- 
tive character  of  the  symbols.  He  can  offer  no  reason  for  setting 
aside  the  representative  office  of  the  symbolic  agent,  that  will  not 
equally  require  the  rejection  of  the  representative  characiciot  the 
action  which  that  agent  exerts,  and  the  effects  lu  whici,  he  i_      ^ 


THE    FOURTH    SEAL.  151 

birth.  But  if  neither  of  them  fulfil  any  office,  nor  have  any  ne 
cessary  significance,  if  the  interpreter  be  at  liberty  to  deny  the 
one  or  the  other  as  the  exigences  of  his  theory  may  require,  it  is 
obviously  vain  to  attempt  a  solution  of  the  prophecy,  or  to  ima- 
gine that  it  has  a  demonstrative  or  probable  meaning.  Such  an 
assumption,  however,  is  as  unworthy  of  an  intrepreter  of  symbols, 
as  it  were  of  a  philologist  to  deny  that  substantives  and  verbs  are 
uniformly  signs  of  specific  voices  that  are  representative  of  ideas. 
His  error  indeed  in  regard  to  symbols,  is  such  as  his  would  be 
in  philology,  who  should  assume  that  terms  denoting  agents  are 
never  to  be  regarded  as  of  any  specific  significance,  but  only  the 
verbs  that  express  the  agency  they  exert ;  and  should  hold  ac- 
cordingly that  the  history  by  Josephus,  of  the  invasion  of  Judea 
by  the  Romans,  and  of  the  slaughters,  conflagrations,  famines, 
and  pestilences  of  that  war,  is  to  be  regarded  as  simply  relating 
that  such  events  took  place  at  that  period  in  Judea,  but  as  giving 
no  information  whatever  in  respect  to  the  agents  by  whom  they 
were  produced  or  occasioned,  on  the  persons  by  whom  they  were 
suffered. 

But  he  proceeds  in  his  whole  system  of  explication  on  the 
assumption  equally  mistaken,  that  symbols  have  no  meaning  but 
that  which  it  is  the  prerogative  of  philology  to  unfold  ;  confound- 
ing thereby  the  office  of  the  mere  translator  and  verbal  expositor, 
with  that  of  the  interpreter  of  representative  agents  and  actions, 
than  which  no  two  things  are  more  wholly  distinct  and  diverse. 
As  well  might  a  philologist  assert,  that  to  translate  the  forty- 
seventh  proposition  of  Euclid  from  Greek  into  English,  and 
verify  the  sense  ascribed  to  the  terms  by  examples,  is  identically 
the  same  as  to  make  out  a  demonstration  of  the  proposition  by  a 
diagram.  The  tasks  of  the  philologist  and  of  the  interpreter,  in 
respect  to  symbols,  are  as  unlike  as  those  of  a  mere  translator 
of  Euclid  and  a  geometrician  who  verifies  his  theorems ;  the 
office  of  the  philologist  being  simply  to  give  the  meaning  of  the 
terms  in  which  the  symbol  is  described  in  the  Greek,  in  equiva- 
lent expressions  in  English,  and  to  sustain  his  version,  if  need  be, 
by  proofs  from  the  usage  of  the  Scriptures  and  other  Greek  wri- 
tings. But  in  doing  that,  he  obviously  does  nothing  whatever 
towards  the  explication  of  the  symbol  itself.  To  assume  that  ho 
does,  is  to  deny  that  it  has  any  representative  character.  The 
work  of  the  philologist  is  only  preparatory  to  the  higher  task  of 
the  interpreter,  whose  peculiar  office  it  is,  in  the  first  place,  to 
unfold  the  principle  of  symbolization,  next  to  show  to  w^hat  de- 
partment of  life  or  nature  the  symbolic  agent  belongs,  and  what 


152  THE    FOURTH    SEAL. 

analogous  species  it  must  be  regarded  as  representing,  and  finally 
10  verify  the  prediction,  if  it  have  been  fulfilled,  by  showing  that 
such  agents  have  appeared  on  the  theatre  of  the  world,  and  ex- 
erted actions  and  produced  effects  that  correspond  to  the  sym- 
bolization. 

Mr.  Stuart  has  accordingly  mistaken  the  office  of  the  philolo- 
gist and  the  interpreter  in  respect  to  the  Apocalypse,  in  the  same 
manner  as  he  would  confound  the  work  of  a  mere  translator  and 
a  mathematician,  who  should  assume  that  to  transfer  the  Prin- 
cipia  of  Newton  from  Latin  into  English,  is  precisely  the  same 
as  to  make  out  a  demonstration  of  the  propositions  of  that  work. 
The  whole  of  his  expositions  accordingly  that  are  framed  in 
accordance  with  that  assumption,  are  false.  He  is  equally  un- 
successful also  in  his  deviations  from  it ;  as  when  he  allows  a 
representative  significance  to  the  symbols,  he  either  assumes 
that  the  agent  and  action  foreshown  are  of  the  same  species  as 
the  symbols  by  which  they  are  represented,  or  violates  in  some 
other  relation  the  laws  of  analogy. 

The  great  heads  of  the  eastern  and  western  hierarchies  thus 
present  a  conspicuous  and  terrible  counterpart  to  the  symbol. 
The  nearer  we  approach  them,  and  the  fuller  we  discern  their 
character,  the  clearer  we  see  in  them  the  gigantic  form  and 
malignant  aspect  of  this  demon  destroyer,  and  trace  in  theirs  the 
history  of  his  dreadful  ravages.  They  have  been  for  fifteen  cen- 
turies the  principal  actors  in  the  scene,  striding  over  every  part 
of  the  Roman  empire,  and  especially  the  ten  kingdoms,  and  filling 
the  atmosphere  through  height  and  depth  with  their  pestilential 
breath.  The  vast  regions  of  the  east  and  south,  the  plains  and 
vales  of  Greece,  Italy,  Spain,  France,  Germany,  and  the  British 
Isles,  the  sequestered  valleys,  the  deep  glens  of  the  mountains, 
the  lofty  hills,  have  been  the  scene  of  their  devastating  agency ; 
nor,  although  that  is  their  theatre,  has  their  influence  been  limited 
to  that  vast  empire.  Their  poisoned  blast  has  drifted  around 
the  coast  of  Africa  to  the  sultry  realms  of  Malabar  and  the  distant 
east,  wafted  olf  to  the  verdant  Isles,  and  swept  across  the  Atlan- 
tic and  Pacific  seas. 

The  symbols  of  the  first  four  seals  thus  represent  the  teachers 
and  rulers  of  the  church  from  the  period  of  the  visions  on  to  the 
fall  of  antichrist.  And  what  an  exact,  what  a  conspicuous,  what 
an  impressive  exhibition  they  form  of  the  principal  characters 
they  have  assumed  ; — the  first,  of  the  faithful  and  successful,  not 
only  of  the  earliest  age  when  they  predominated,  but  all,  how- 
ever few,  and  however  humble  their  station  of  every  subsequent 


THE    FIFTH    SEAL.  153 

period  ;  the  second,  of  the  ambitious  and  contentious  who  usurped 
an  unauthorized  dominion  over  the  church,  and  distracted  and 
wasted  it  by  strifes  and  misrule  ;  the  third,  the  unfaithful  and 
treacherous  who  perverted  their  office  to  the  suppression  and 
adulteration  of  the  truth,  and  reduced  their  flocks  to  famine  and 
misery  ;  the  last,  the  great  archpriesls  of  apostasy  who,  usurping 
the  throne  and  rights  of  God,  introduced  new  objects  of  homage, 
a  new  worship,  and  new  conditions  of  pardon  ;  rendered  their 
teachings  a  moral  pestilence  that  taints  and  kills  all  who  fall 
under  its  power  ;  and  made  the  subordinate  ranks  of  the  ministry 
and  the  civil  rulers  also  their  instruments  in  the  work  of  de- 
struction. 

Very  different  are  the  seals  that  follow ; — the  fifth  disclosing 
the  views  and  feelings  with  which  the  martyrs  pass  into  the  invis- 
ible world,  and  their  justification  and  admission  to  rest  till  the 
domination  of  antichrist  shall  reach  its  close ;  the  sixth,  the  fall 
of  the  tyrannical  governments  which  is  to  take  place  at  the  advent 
of  Christ ;  and  the  last  displaying  other  actors  and  other  succes- 
sions of  events  from  the  early  ages  on  to  the  illimitable  future. 


SECTION  XII. 

CHAPTER  VI.    9,  10,  11. 

THE    FIFTH    SEAL. 


And  when  he  opened  the  fifth  seal,  I  saw  under  the  altar  the 
souls  of  those  who  were  slain  on  account  of  the  word  of  God,  and 
on  account  of  the  testimony  which  they  held.  And  they  cried  with 
a  loud  voice  saying,  Until  when,  O  Lord  the  holy  and  true,  dost  thou 
not  judge  and  vindicate  our  blood  from  those  who  dwell  on  the  earth  ? 
And  there  was  given  to  each  one  of  them  a  white  robe,  and  it  was 
said  to  them  that  they  should  rest  yet  a  short  time,  until  their  fellow- 
servants  and  their  brethren,  who  were  about  to  be  killed  also  as  they, 
were  completed. 

Some  interpreters,  as  Mr.  Daubuz  and  Vitringa,  regard  the 
altar  as  introduced  in  order  to  exhibit  tiie  martyrs  as  sacrifi- 
ces offered  to  God.  That  construction,  however,  is  embarrassed 
by  insuperable  objections.  The  brazen  altar  was  an  altar  of  ex- 
piation only.  The  animals  offered  on  it  were  types  of  the  sacri- 
fice of  Christ,  and  he  offered  himself  only  in  atonement  for  sin. 
What  resemblance  then  subsists  between  his  offering,  and  the 
'  20 


154  THE    FIFTH    SEAL. 

slaughter  of  the  martyrs  ?  Their  death  was  not  expiatory,  noi 
vicarious.  We  are  excluded  therefore  by  the  nature  of  his  sac- 
rifice, from  the  supposition  of  any  analogy  between  their  death 
and  his.  Nor  can  the  altar  have  been  introduced  for  the  mere  pur- 
pose of  indicating  that  the  martyrs,  like  sacrificial  victims,  were 
put  to  a  bloody  death.  No  need  existed  of  such  an  exhibition. 
Nor  was  there  any  analogy  between  their  slaughter  and  that  of 
animals  sacrificed,  which  the  altar  could  properly  denote.  The 
reasons  of  their  being  slain  were  wholly  different,  and  its  rela- 
tions to  right.  Those  sacrifices  were  offered  by  divine  com- 
mand ;  it  was  in  transgression  of  the  law  of  God  that  the  mar- 
tyrs were  slain.  It  was  no  infringement  of  the  rights  of  the 
animals  sacrificed,  to  subject  them  to  that  death.  The  persecu- 
tion and  slaughter  of  the  martyrs,  were  in  violation  of  their  most 
sacred  rights.  It  is  undoubtedly  in  some  wholly  different  rela- 
tion therefore  that  the  altar  is  to  be  contemplated.  As  their 
cheerful  submission  to  death  for  the  sake  of  Christ  was  a  beau- 
tiful act  of  obedience,  it  resembled  far  more  an  offering  of  in- 
cense on  the  golden  altar,  in  expression  of  love,  gratitude,  and 
homage,  than  an  expiatory  sacrifice.  And  if  the  altar  were  in- 
troduced in  order  to  exhibit  their  death  as  an  offering,  it  was 
doubtless  the  altar  of  incense  and  as  a  symbol  of  homage.  But 
that  construction  is  likewise  ineligible.  That  they  died  as  mar- 
tyrs, implies  that  they  died  cheerfully  for  the  sake  of  Christ 
rather  than  to  apostatize,  not  of  mere  constraint,  and  needed  not 
therefore  a  formal  symbolization.  Whether  the  altar  then  were 
the  altar  of  incense,  or  the  altar  of  expiation,  it  doubtless  was  in- 
troduced, not  to  exhibit  them  as  sacrifices  or  as  offerings,  but 
only  as  a  symbol  of  the  instrument  on  which  the  expiation  had 
been  made  which  was  the  ground  of  their  trust,  as  it  was  on  that 
that  the  fire  of  God's  justice  had  burned,  and  on  the  cross  which 
it  typified  that  his  rights  had  been  vindicated,  and  his  truth  and 
rectitude  maintained  ;  and  its  object  accordingly  was  to  exhibit 
them,  not  as  martyrs,  but  simply  as  believers  in  Christ,  relying 
on  his  sacrifice  for  justification.  Their  station  under  it,  or  at 
its  foot,  denotes  accordingly  their  reliance  on  the  expiation  made 
on  the  cross,  and  appeal  on  the  ground  of  it  to  tiie  faithfulness 
of  Christ  to  fulfil  the  promises  of  a  speedy  advent  to  take  posses- 
sion of  the  earth,  redeem  his  people  from  the  power  of  his  usurp- 
ing enemies,  and  crown  them  with  the  full  redemption  which  is 
to  mark  his  millennial  reign.  This  is  in  accordance  with  their 
cry,  which  imphes  an  expectation  founded  on  a  promise,  that  he 
would  interpose  and  destroy  those  who  were  slaughtering  his 


THE    FIFTH    SEAL.  155 

people,  that  a  long  period  of  persecution  had  intervened  since 
the  utterance  of  that  promise,  and  that  his  trulli  and  righteous- 
ness were  intimately  concerned  in  its  fulfilment.  Their  cry 
sprang  not  therefore  from  impatience  under  sufferings,  nor  re- 
sentment against  their  persecutors,  but  from  a  regard  to  the  word 
and  glory  of  the  Redeemer,  whose  victory  cannot  be  completed 
till  antichrist  is  overthrown,  and  the  earth  restored  to  the  do- 
minion of  righteousness.  In  this  relation  the  symbol  has  a 
natural,  a  clear,  and  a  sublime  significance.  The  affections 
exhibited  by  the  martyrs  are  becoming  them,  and  honorable  to 
the  Saviour. 

Unlike  the  agents  denoted  by  the  symbols  of  the  preceding 
seals,  the  martyr  souls  are  exhibited  in  their  own  persons  ;  and 
obviously  because  no  others  could  serve  as  their  symbol ;  there 
being  no  others  that  have  undergone  a  change  from  a  bodied  to 
a  disembodied  life,  nor  that  sustain  such  relations  to  God  of  for- 
giveness, acceptance,  and  assurance  of  a  resurrection  from  death, 
and  a  priesthood  with  Christ  during  his  victorious  reign  on  the 
earth.  They  act  accordingly  in  their  own  persons,  not  as  repre- 
sentatives of  another  class  of  beings,  or  of  surviving  or  subse- 
quent believers  on  the  earth. 

They  were  the  souls  of  the  martyrs  that  were  shown  in  the  vis- 
ion, not  their  dead  bodies,  as  Mr.  Mede  and  some  others  have 
supposed,  as  is  manifest  from  the  term  itself,  the  representation, 
the  scene  of  their  appearance,  and  their  cry.  The  term  to. 
crrcj.aaTa  is  used  in  the  prophecy  to  denote  the  dead  bodies  of  the 
martyrs,  chap.  xi.  9,  and  «<  ^'"X^'j  x^-  4,  to  denote  their  disembodied 
spirits.  They  are  represented  as  having  been  slain,  and  as  uttering 
their  appeal  to  God  because  of  their  blood  having  been  shed. 
But  it  were  incongruous  to  exhibit  dead  bodies  as  conscious,  and 
exerting  the  actions  of  life.  It  were  in  conti'adiction  to  truth. 
Such  a  symbolization  would  represent  them  indeed,  not  as  con- 
tinuing under  the  power  of  death,  but  raised  to  a  new  life.  And 
finally  the  place  of  their  appearance  was  not  that  of  their  martyr- 
dom on  the  earth,  but  at  the  altar  before  the  throne  in  the  scene 
of  the  vision  in  heaven,  whither  their  souls  passed  immediately 
after  death,  but  whither  it  were  incongruous  to  exhibit  their  bo- 
dies as  conveyed. 

The  period  of  their  utterance  of  the  cry,  was  that  intervening 
immediately  between  death  and  their  public  acceptance,  in  token 
of  which  wliite  robes  were  given  them  ;  and  not  improbably  the 
wonder  at  the  delay  of  the  promise  which  it  expressed,  was  not 
that  alone  which  they  may  have  felt  when  subjected  to  the  stroke 


156  THE    FIFTH    SEAL. 

of  death,  but  in  a  far  higher  degree  a  surprise  and  awe  excited 
on  the  one  hand  by  the  vision  of  the  incarnate  Deity,  and  loftier 
sense  to  which  they  were  raised  by  it  of  the  sanctity  of  his  rights, 
his  infinite  power  to  accomplish  his  purposes,  and  the  wonderful- 
ness  of  his  forbearance  toward  his  foes  ;  and  on  the  other  by  the 
beauty  of  their  new  existence,  the  greatness  of  his  love  to  his 
people,  and  the  glory  of  the  salvation  to  which  he  exalts  them. 
With  these  was  intermixed  not  improbably  a  feeling  of  pity  and 
love  for  those  whom  they  had  left  exposed  to  the  sufferings  and 
dangers  of  persecution,  and  desire  that  their  families  and  friends 
might  by  the  speedy  advent  of  Christ  be  freed  from  those  trials, 
and  given  to  share  in  tiie  infinite  gifts  of  his  millennial  reign. 

The  form  in  which  they  uttered  their  surprise  at  his  delay  is 
eminently  beautiful,  becoming  beings  ap.proaching  for  the  first 
time  his  visible  presence,  meeting  his  smile,  beholding  the  daz- 
zling grandeurs  of  his  majesty,  and  raised  to  a  raptured  realiza- 
tion of  the  splendors  of  the  existence  to  which  he  exalts  his  re- 
deemed ; — a  burst  of  wonder  alike  at  his  love  to  his  people,  and  at 
his  forbearance  toward  his  foes,  fraught  with  an  acknowledgment 
of  his  sovereignty,  his  infinite  sanctitude  and  truth,  and  trust  in 
his  promise  of  a  speedy  redemption  of  the  earth  from  the  domin- 
ion of  his  enemies.  It  exhibits  them  as  entering  his  presence 
with  a  profound  interest  in  his  glory,  a  fervent  desire  to  under- 
stand his  ways,  confidence  in  his  rectitude,  and  a  sense  that  the 
new  and  immortal  career  on  which  they  had  entered,  is  pre-em- 
inently to  owe  its  beauty  and  blessedness  to  the  accomphshment 
of  the  great  purpose  which  he  has  revealed,  of  a  conquest  of  his 
foes,  and  a  victorious  reign  on  the  earth. 

The  gift  of  a  wiiite  robe  to  each  one  of  them,  denotes  that  they 
were  formally  accepted,  and  adjudged  to  the  inheritance  of  life ; 
a  white  robe  being  the  symbol  of  justification.  The  response  to 
their  appeal,  that  they  should  rest  yet  for  a  short  lime  till  their 
fellow  servants  and  their  bretiiren  who  were  to  be  killed  also  as 
they,  were  completed,  indicates  that  they  were  in  expectation  of 
a  great  and  bhssful  ciiange  in  Christ's  administration  over  the 
world,  when  he  should  descend  to  vindicate  their  blood  ;  that 
that  change  was  to  take  place  as  soon  as  the  number  of  the 
martyrs  was  completed,  and  that  tiie  period  to  intervene  was  but 
short.  It  is  an  indubitable  announcement  therefore  that  the  last 
period  of  antichrist  is  to  be  one  of  persecution.  That  great 
change,  it  is  subsequently  shown,  is  the  extinction  of  the  idola- 
trous and  persecuting  powers,  the  banishment  of  Satan  to  the 
abyss,  the  resurrection  of  the  saints  and  reign  with  Christ  on  the 


THE    FIFTH    SEAL.  157 

earih,  the  sanclificalion  universally  of  the  nations,  and  conversion 
of  the  w^orld  into  a  paradise  of  righteousness  and  peace.  The 
answ^er  thus  clearly  shows  that  it  was  in  reference  to  these  great 
events  that  they  uttered  their  wonder  at  his  delay. 

As  the  action  of  the  martyr  spirits  was  in  heaven,  not  on  earth, 
and  was  simply  expressive  of  their  own  feelings  on  entering  the 
divine  presence,  not  representative  of  the  future  actions  of  others, 
it  contains  no  note  either  of  the  commencement  or  close  of  the 
period  to  which  it  belongs.  The  whole  representation,  however, 
indicates  that  it  is  late  in  the  reign  of  antichrist.  Tiieir  cry  im- 
plies that  a  longer  period  of  persecution  than  they  had  anticipa- 
ted, had  already  passed,  and  the  answer  that  the  time  still  to 
elapse  before  the  advent  of  Christ,  was  to  be  short  in  compari- 
son. Its  period  is  doubtless,  therefore,  during  the  ravages  of  the 
fourth  horseman,  and  the  action  of  the  wild  beasts  of  the  earth  in 
the  relations  exhibited  in  that  symbol,  of  subsidiaries  to  the  apos- 
tate archpriests  of  the  church,  and  towards  its  close.  Near  the 
termination  of  the  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years,  the  relations  of 
the  great  sorceress  to  the  civil  governments  were  to  be  essential- 
ly reversed.  She  was  to  fall  from  her  supremacy,  to  be  hated, 
torn,  and  devoured  by  those  whom  she  had  seduced,  and  to  sink 
into  the  condition  of  an  equal  and  a  tool.  Though  she  is  to  sub- 
sist to  the  last,  yet  it  is  the  ten-horned  wild  beast  that  is  to  slaugh- 
ter the  witnesses,  and  make  the  last  war  on  the  saints  ;  and  the 
unclean  spirits  that  are  to  gather  the  kings  together  at  the  battle 
of  the  great  day  of  God  Almighty,  are  to  go  out  of  the  mouth  of 
the  wild  beast  and  the  dragon,  as  well  as  the  false  prophet.  It 
is  to  spring  in  a  large  degree  from  political  motives,  and  the  apos- 
tate rulers  of  the  church  are  to  act  in  it  but  the  part  of  subordi- 
nates. The  period  of  the  martyrs  was  probably,  therefore,  to- 
wards the  close  of  the  Reformation,  and  ended  with  that  strug- 
gle. 

The  revelation  made  under  this  seal,  is  eminently  adapted  to 
yield  support  to  the  people  of  God  under  the  trials  of  persecution. 
While  it  forewarns  them  indirectly  that  those  trials  were  to  con- 
tinue through  a  long  tract  of  ages,  it  teaches  that  the  martyrs  im- 
mediately ascend  to  the  presence  of  Christ,  receive  justification, 
and  enter  on  a  happy  and  glorious  life.  It  shows  that  they  rise  to  the 
loftiest  interest  in  the  ways  and  purposes  of  the  Redeemer,  and  look 
forward  with  the  most  fervid  desire  to  his  advent  and  their  resur- 
rection and  participation  in  the  grandeurs  of  his  victorious  reign 
on  the  earth.  It  assures  them  that  however  incomprehensible  and 
dark  his  providences  appear  here,  they  are  filled  on  their  admis- 


158  THE    FIFTH    SEAL. 

sion  to  his  presence  with  the  loftiest  sense  of  liis  dominion,  rec- 
titude, and  truth,  and  find  the  most  ample  reason  for  acquiescence 
in  his  will.  It  forewarns  them  that  the  period  immediately  be- 
fore the  final  destruction  of  the  wild  beast  and  false  prophet,  is  to 
be  marked  by  a  bloody  persecution,  and  that  the  completion  of 
the  number  of  the  martyrs  is  to  be  the  signal  of  the  Redeemer's 
advent. 

The  different  views  which  commentators  have  given  of  the  pas- 
sage, present  nothing  to  impair  this  exposition.  Grotius  repre- 
sents the  martyrs  as  those  who  were  first  slain  in  Judea — Stephen, 
James,  and  others.  But  that  is  to  represent  their  martyrdom  as 
anterior  to  the  earliest  date  assigned  to  the  visions.  The  death 
of  Stephen  is  referred  to  the  year  34,^  of  James  to  44."'^  The 
date  assigned  by  Grotius  to  the  banishment  of  the  apostle  to  Pat- 
mos,  is  the  reign  of  Claudius,  who,  according  to  Pagi,^  died  in 
A.  D.  54 ;  not  only,  however,  without  the  least  probability,  as 
history  furnishes  no  hint  of  a  persecution  under  that  emperor,  but 
against  the  reference  of  the  Revelation  by  the  earliest  writers  to 
the  close  of  the  reign  of  Domitian,  whose  death  took  place  in  A. 
D.  95  or  96.^  The  death  of  Stephen,  therefore,  preceded  the 
accession  of  Claudius  several  years.  The  death  of  James  took 
place  in  ti)e  third  year  of  his  reign,  and  must  have  preceded  the 
vision  likewise,  unless  it  were  of  an  earlier  date  than  any  have 
hitherto  been  willing  to  assign.  It  is  inconsistent  with  the  inti- 
mation by  the  martyrs  that  a  long  period  of  persecution  had  al- 
ready passed,  and  shown  to  be  wholly  erroneous  by  the  vast  tract 
of  ages,  during  which  the  frequent  slaughter  of  the  witnesses  of 
God  continued.  At  the  period  when  Grotius  wrote  his  comment, 
it  had  raged  for  centuries  with  scarce  an  intermission,  and  con- 
tinued on  a  vast  scale  a  hundred  years  later.  Dr.  Hammond, 
Eichhorn,  Rosenmuller,  and  Mr.  Stuart  likewise  exhibit  the  mar- 
tyrs as  those  slain  by  the  Jews. 

Mr.  Mede,  Dr.  Cressener,  Dr.  More,  Mr.  Jurieu,  Mr.  Daubuz, 
Mr.  Lowman,  Mr.  Whiston,  Bishop  Newton,  Mr.  Faber,  Mr.  El- 
liott, regard  the  martyrs  as  those  chiefly  who  were  slain  in  the 
persecution  by  Diocletian.  But  that  is  scarcely  less  inconsistent 
with  the  assurance,  that  but  a  short  time  should  intervene  be- 
fore the  number  of  the  martyrs  should  be  completed.  Thir- 
teen centuries  followed  of  persecution,  almost  without  inter- 
mission ;  a  period  in  no  sense  short,  but  wholly  incapable  of  that 

'  Baronii  annales,  anno  34,  no.  300  no.  301.  *  Ibid,  anno  44,  no.  2. 

'  Pagi  Crit.  ill  annales  Baron,  anno  54,  no.  2. 
♦  Eusebii  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  iii.  c.  23,  lib.  v.  c  8. 


THE    FIFTH    SEAL.  159 

designation  in  comparison  of  the  season  of  persecution  that  pre- 
ceded it. 

Mr.  Brightman  refers  the  slaughter  of  the  martyrs  to  the  per- 
secutions from  Trajan  to  Gallienus,  and  regards  the  white  robes 
and  short  rest,  as  denoting  the  quiet  and  prosperity  of  the  church 
on  earth  from  that  period  to  the  persecution  by  Diocletian.  Mr 
Cuninghame  also,  while  he  refers  their  slaughter  to  the  persecu- 
tions by  the  papal  hierarchy,  regards  them  in  their  acceptance  and 
rest,  as  probably  symbolizing  the  church  on  earth.  But  that  is 
in  contradiction  to  the  law  of  symbolization  itself,  and  to  the 
agency  ascribed  to  the  martyr  spirits.  There  is  no  analogy  be- 
tween the  condition  of  disembodied  souls,  and  believers  on  earth  ; 
between  those  who  have  ascended  to  heaven,  obtained  justifica- 
tion, and  entered  into  rest,  and  those  who  are  yet  offending  and 
repenting,  struggling  amidst  the  storms  of  trial,  and  exposed  to 
persecution  and  death,  that  can  make  the  one  a  proper  represen- 
tative of  the  other.  The  actions  of  the  martyr  spirits  are  equally 
incapable  of  ascription  to  the  church  here.  What  act  of  believ- 
ers on  earth,  can  their  representation  that  their  blood  has  been 
shed,  denote  ;  or  their  reception  of  a  robe,  and  entrance  on  a 
rest  ?  Nothing  of  an  analogous  nature  takes  place  in  their  con- 
dition here.  Their  life  is  a  warfare  to  its  close.  Besides,  to  ex- 
hibit them  in  this  part  of  the  representation  as  sustaining  the  re- 
lation of  a  symbol  to  the  church  on  earth,  is  to  exhibit  the  Re- 
deemer also  in  his  address  to  them  and  gift  of  a  robe,  as  symbol 
izing  the  authors  or  instruments  of  that  condition  or  agency  of 
the  church  which  they  are  supposed  to  denote,  which  is  wholly 
unauthorized  and  against  analogy. 

Vitringa's  exposition,  who  regarded  their  justification  in  heaven 
as  symbolizing  their  justification  by  the  church  on  earth,  is  ob 
noxious  to  the  same  objection.  No  instance  appears  in  the  Apoc 
alypse,  in  which  there  is  the  slightest  indication  that  the  Redeemer 
acts  as  a  symbol  of  any  other  being.  There  is  no  analogy  be- 
tween his  deity,  his  deity  and  his  manhood  united,  or  his  station, 
and  that  of  any  order  of  creatures.  It  is  inconsistent  with  his 
dignity  and  office  that  he  should  serve  as  a  symbol  of  other  agents, 
and  especially  of  such  as  are  imperfect  like  believers  on  earth. 
He  accordingly,  whenever  introduced,  appears  in  his  own  per- 
son, and  acts  only  as  his  own  representative.  Most  interpreters 
seem  to  regard  it  as  the  principal  design  of  the  symbol  to  fore- 
show a  persecution  of  the  saints.  But  though  it  makes  that 
important  revelation,  it  is  not  to  contemplate  it  in  its  proper  rela- 
tions to  regard  that  as  its  chief  aim,  as  it  is  taught  indirectly  only. 


160  THE    SIXTH    SEAL. 

The  agents  of  the  scene  represented  as  introduced  into  the  pres- 
ence of  Christ  by  a  persecution,  are  employed  in  teaching  other 
truths  adapted  to  console  and  sustain  the  church  in  its  trials 


SECTION  XIII. 

CHAPTER    VI.    12-17. 
THE   SIXTH  SEAL. 


And  I  looked  when  he  opened  the  sixth  seal,  and  there  was  a 
great  earthquake.  And  the  sun  became  black  as  hair  sackcloth,  and 
the  whole  moon  became  as  blood.  And  the  stars  of  heaven  fell  to 
the  earth,  as  a  fig-tree  shaken  by  a  great  wind  casts  her  unripe  figs. 
And  heaven  was  removed  like  a  scroll  uproUed,  and  every  mount- 
ain and  island  were  moved  from  their  places.  And  the  kings  of  the 
earth,  and  the  great  men,  and  the  commanders  of  thousands,  and  the 
rich,  and  the  mighty,  and  every  bondman  and  freeman,  hid  them- 
selves in  the  caves,  and  in  the  rocks  of  the  mountains,  and  said  to 
the  mountains  and  to  the  rocks,  Fall  on  us  and  hide  us  from  the  face 
of  him  who  sits  on  the  throne,  and  from  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb,  for 
the  great  day  of  his  wrath  has  come,  and  who  is  able  to  stand  ? 

The  symbojic  agents  of  the  preceding  seals  were  living  beings, 
and  exhibited  as  actors  exerting  influences  on  others,  or  express- 
ing their  own  thoughts  and  feelings.  The  chief  of  these  are 
unconscious  objects,  and  exhibited  not  as  exertors,  but  as  the 
subjects  of  influences.  The  law  of  symbolization  requires  us 
to  regard  them,  not  as  representing  themselves,  but  some  analo- 
gous class  of  existences.  It  is  inconsistent  with  the  aim  of  the 
prophecy,  to  assume  that  they  were  introduced  for  the  purpose 
of  foreshowing  that  they  are  themselves  to  be  the  subjects  of 
such  events.  The  object  of  the  revelation  is  to  foreshow  agen- 
cies which  intelligent  creatures  are  to  exert,  and  the  dispensa- 
tions of  God  towards  them,  not  mere  phenomena  of  the  material 
world  ;  and  all  the  symbols  accordingly  that  are  exhibited  either 
as  the  authors  or  the  subjects  of  actions,  are  representatives  in 
some  relation  of  intelligent  beings. 

Where,  then,  in  the  great  circle  of  society  in  the  apocalyptic 
earth,  are  there  individuals  or  bodies  of  men,  that  exhibit  in  their 
relations  to  the  population  at  large,  a  conspicuous  resemblance 


THE    SIXTH    SEAL.  161 

to  the  relations  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  to  the  earth  ?  Civil 
rulers  are  obviously  such,  and  they  alone.  Monarchs,  princes, 
nobles,  great  officers  of  state,  legislators,  are  in  the  political 
world,  what  those  luminaries  are  in  the  physical.  They  are  to- 
gether the  central  and  controlling  power,  the  source  of  law  and 
opinion.  They  send  their  influence  through  every  department 
of  society,  and  determine  the  conditions  and  forms  of  life.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  population  at  large,  with  its  subordinate  or- 
ganizations, is  to  those  rulers  what  the  earth  with  its  natural  di- 
versities of  surface,  productions,  and  artificial  structures,  is  to 
the  sun,  moon,  and  stars.  What  events  then  are  there  in  such 
a  political  world  analogous  to  a  great  earthquake,  the  conversion 
of  the  sun  into  black,  and  the  moon  into  crimson,  the  fall  of  the 
stars,  the  disappearance  of  the  heavens,  and  the  removal  from 
their  places  of  mountains  and  islands  ?  Violent  political  agita- 
tions and  revolutions  obviously  present  such  a  correspondence  to 
the  first ;  tiie  misuse  by  rulers  of  their  power  in  the  oppression 
of  their  subjects,  to  the  second  ;  their  fall  from  their  stations,  to 
the  third  ;  and  the  annihilation  of  governments  themselves,  and 
obliteration  of  political  distinctions,  to  the  fourth.  In  a  great 
earthquake  the  surface  of  the  ground  through  a  wide  region  is 
violently  agitated ;  the  hills,  vales,  rocks,  forests,  trees,  are  thrown 
into  new  attitudes  ;  the  works  of  art  dashed  down ;  pestiferous 
gases  emitted  from  fissures  and  caverns,  and  the  growth  inter- 
cepted of  the  fruits  and  crops.  So  in  violent  political  commo- 
tions and  revolutions,  the  members  of  the  community  are  thrown 
into  new  relations,  new  combinations  generated,  new  and  danger- 
ous principles  and  passions  evolved,  and  an  air  of  disorder,  inse- 
curity, and  violence  impressed  on  the  whole  aspect  of  society.. 
To  convert  the  sun  into  black,  and  the  moon  into  blood,  were  tO' 
reverse  their  nature  and  influences,  render  them  objects  of  hor- 
ror, and  make  them  sources  of  mischief,  instead  of  light,  warmth,, 
and  life.  In  like  manner,  when  civil  rulers  become  lawless  op- 
pressors, they  lose  their  proper  character  as  vindicators  of  right,, 
guardians  of  safety,  and  fosterers  of  happiness,  and  become  ter- 
rific agents  of  destruction.  There  is  a  similar  analogy  betweea 
the  fall  of  stars  and  the  dejection  of  rulers  from  their  station ; 
and  between  the  withdrawal  of  the  heavens,  and  the  removal  of 
mountains  and  islands  from  their  places,  and  the  annihilation  of 
governments  and  obliteration  of  all  political  distinctions. 

The  symbols  of  this  seal  represent  then  a  succession  of  violent 
and  disastrous  changes  in  the  political  world,  which  are  at  length- 
to  end  in  the  dissolution  of  all  forms  of  civil  government.     The 

21 


162  THE    SIXTH    SEAL. 

first  in  the  series  denoted  by  the  earthquake,  is  a  violent  com- 
motion of  the  subjects  of  government,  by  which  they  are  thrown 
out  of  their  former  position  into  new  relations, — the  erect  stretched 
prostrate,  the  conspicuous  dashed  into  obscurity,  the  obscure 
raised  to  dignity  and  influence,  and  confusion,  disarray,  and  vio- 
lence spread  through  every  scene.  The  next,  denoted  by  the 
conversion  of  the  sun  into  black,  and  the  moon  into  blood,  is  a 
change  of  the  civil  rulers  themselves  thus  suddenly  raised  to 
power,  from  the  beneficent  influence  which  it  is  their  proper  of- 
fice to  exert  in  maintaining  right,  preserving  peace,  disseminating 
knowledge,  and  exciting  a  healthful  action  in  all  the  departments 
of  society,  to  oppression,  a  lawless  violation  of  the  rights,  de- 
vastation of  the  property,  and  destruction  of  the  happiness  of 
their  subjects  ;  such  as  usually  springs  out  of  the  ebullitions  of 
democracy.  Then  follows  the  precipitation  of  these  oppressors 
from  their  stations  to  a  level  with  the  multitude,  symbolized  by 
the  fall  of  stars  to  the  earth  like  the  dejection  of  unripe  figs  from 
a  tree  shaken  and  swayed  to  and  fro  by  a  violent  wind  :  next,  a 
total  dissolution  of  government  and  obliteration  of  all  political 
distinctions,  indicated  by  the  passing  away  of  the  heavens  and 
the  movement  of  the  mountains  and  islands  from  their  places : 
and  lastly,  a  consummation  of  the  catastrophe  by  the  visible  ad- 
vent of  the  Redeemer  to  judge  his  enemies,  and  accept  his  peo- 
ple, shown  by  the  consternation  of  the  kings  and  their  subjects, 
their  retreat  from  the  splendors  of  his  presence  to  dens  and  caves, 
and  cry  to  the  mountains  and  rocks  to  fall  on  them,  and  hide 
them  from  his  wrath  : — exhibiting  his  presence  and  the  arrival 
of  the  great  day  of  his  vengeance,  as  the  cause  of  their  terror, 
and  indicating  an  entire  termination  of  their  conflicts  with  each 
other,  and  dissolution  of  all  political  relations.  To  ascribe  any 
lower  meaning  to  the  passage,  is  to  disregard  its  most  conspicu- 
ous characters.  To  suppose  the  presence  of  the  Lamb,  and  the 
great  day  of  his  wrath,  are  mere  representatives  of  another  and 
inferior  presence  and  epoch,  is  to  contradict  the  law  of  symboli- 
zation  requiring  a  resemblance  of  the  sign  to  the  thing  signified 
No  such  analogy  subsists  between  the  Deity  and  creatures,  thai 
he  can  properly  be  made  their  symbol.  They  are  at  the  great- 
est possible  distance  from  each  other.  It  were  wholly  inconsist- 
ent with  the  nature  and  station  of  the  omnipotent  Judge  of  all. 
to  make  him  descending  to  execute  vengeance  on  his  enemies,  a 
representative  of  those  enemies  themselves  inflicting  evils  on  one 
another ;  the  infinitely  Upright  the  symbol  of  the  wicked, — 
•Christ  of  Antichrist.     It  is  to  disregard  the  representation  thai 


THE    SIXTH    SEAL.  163 

his  presence  and  the  arrival  of  the  day  of  his  wrath,  are  the 
cause  of  the  consternation  of  the  rulers  and  people,  and  endeavor 
to  hide  themselves  in  the  caverns  and  rocks,  and  convert  it  indeed 
into  a  solecism.  From  whom  are  they  to  fly,  if  not  from  him  ? 
Not  from  one  another,  as  their  flight  is  to  be  promiscuous  and  uni- 
versal. It  is  indisputably  certain  therefore  that  the  great  catas- 
trophe denoted  by  the  symbol,  is  to  be  consummated  by  the 
visible  advent  of  the  Son  of  God  to  destroy  his  foes,  take  posses- 
sion of  the  earth,  and  commence  his  millennial  reign  ;  and  this  is 
in  accordance  with  the  resembling  symbol  of  the  seventh  trumpet 
which  is  immediately  to  precede  that  advent,  and  with  the  Sa- 
viour's prediction,  Matt.  xxiv.  29,  that  his  coming  in  the  clouds 
of  heaven  with  power  and  great  glory,  is  to  follow  a  darkening 
of  the  sun  and  moon,  and  fall  of  the  stars. 

The  events  denoted  by  the  symbol  are  such  as  must  naturally 
occupy  a  long  period.  A  political  convulsion  subverting  one 
form  of  government  and  instituting  another,  is  itself  the  work  of 
years.  The  change  of  the  sun  to  black  and  the  moon  to  blood, 
denote  not  their  extinction  or  disappearance,  but  their  conversion 
from  an  agreeable  and  salutary,  to  a  dreaded  and  disastrous 
agency ;  and  the  change  of  the  new  rulers,  which  it  denotes, 
from  justice  to  oppression,  and  exercise  of  a  tyrannical  sway,  re- 
quires a  considerable  period.  It  is  subsequently  that  the  fall  of 
the  stars  takes  place,  by  which  their  dejection  from  their  stations 
is  symbolized.  And  the  final  disappearance  of  the  heavens,  the 
removal  of  the  mountains  and  islands,  and  the  promiscuous  flight 
of  rulers  and  subjects  from  the  presence  of  the  Lamb,  are  to 
follow  at  a  still  later  period. 

The  first  three  of  these  great  events  have  undoubtedly  already 
taken  place,  and  are  the  same  as  those  denoted  by  the  symbols 
of  the  first,  fourth,  and  fifth  vials  ;  the  first  being  the  revolution 
in  France,  extending  from  the  commencement  of  that  political 
agitation  to  the  fall  of  the  ancient  government ;  the  second,  the 
conversion  of  the  new  rule  to  a  despotism,  and  exercise,  through 
a  succession  of  years,  of  a  violent  tyranny ;  the  third,  the  over- 
throw of  that  oppressive  dynasty,  at  the  fall  of  Bonaparte,  in 
1815.  Betwixt  that  fall  and  the  final  subversion  of  the  govern- 
ments of  the  earth,  denoted  by  the  passing  away  of  the  heavens, 
a  period  intervenes,  during  which  the  sealing  symbolized  in  the 
next  vision  is  to  take  place.  These  symbolizations  correspond 
in  all  respects  with  those  events  ;  and  those  events  with  the 
symbolizations  of  those  vials.  These  are  to  be  followed  by  the 
assumption  by  the  servants  of  God,  of  a  new  relation  towards 


164  THE  SIXTH  SEAL. 

the  antichristian  rulers,  denoted  by  their  being  sealed,  as  those 
are  by  a  new  testimony  of  the  witnesses  to  the  rights  and  pre- 
rogatives of  God,  in  opposition  to  the  usurpations  of  the  wild 
beast  and  false  prophet.  The  sealing  is  to  be  followed  by  the 
annihilation  of  the  civil  governments,  the  advent  of  the  Son  of 
God,  and  a  resurrection  of  the  saints  :  as  the  testimony  and 
slaughter  of  the  witnesses  are  by  the  seventh  trumpet,  a  pohtical 
agitation,  the  advent  of  Christ,  the  destruction  of  the  wild  beast, 
and  the  resurrection  of  the  holy  dead. 

The  differing  views  which  expositors  have  given  of  these  sym- 
bols are  arbitrary  and  inconsistent  with  analogy.  Grotius  re- 
garded them  as  representing  similar  physical  events,  that  were 
to  presage  the  war  between  the  Jews  and  the  Romans  under 
Nero  and  Vespasian,  and  refers  the  discoloration  of  the  sun  and 
the  moon  to  eclipses  of  those  bodies  during  the  reign  of  Clau- 
dius. But  that  is  to  disregard  the  law  of  symbolization,  and 
make  the  sign  and  the  thing  signified  of  the  same  species. 

Dr.  Hammond  ascribes  that  signification  likewise  to  the  earth- 
quake and  the  darkening  of  the  sun  and  moon,  and  to  the  latter 
the  additional  office  also  of  indicating  slaughter,  which  is  against 
analogy,  and  desti'uctive  of  all  certainty  of  meaning.  If  symbols 
may  in  that  manner  denote  two  different  and  wholly  dissimilar 
events,  of  one  of  which  the  physical  world  is  the  subject,  of  the 
other  the  intelligent,  why  may  they  not  represent  any  other  num- 
ber and  variety  ?  Who  can  determine  the  limit  or  nature  of 
their  import  ?  The  fall  of  the  stars  and  the  other  phenomena, 
he  regards  as  symbohzing  the  defeat  of  the  Jewish  leaders,  the 
capture  of  Jerusalem,  and  dispersion  of  the  nation  by  Titus, 
which  are  also  without  analog}\  The  Jews  were  not  indepen- 
dent, and  had  no  supreme  powers  sustaining  a  relation  to  their 
nation  answering  to  that  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  to  the  earth. 
Their  city  had  been  captured,  moreover,  several  years  before  the 
period  of  the  visions,  and  cannot  for  that  reason  be  the  event  de- 
noted by  these  symbols. 

Mr.  Brightman  interpreted  them  of  the  persecution  by  Diocle- 
tian ;  regarding  the  sun  as  representing  the  Scriptures,  the  moon 
piety,  the  stars  the  ministers  of  the  church,  the  heavens  the 
church  itself,  and  alleging  the  burning  of  the  Scriptures,  the  ob- 
struction of  piety,  and  the  apostasy  of  ministers  and  private 
Christians,  as  the  events  foreshown.  But  no  such  correspond- 
ence as  symbolization  requires,  subsists  between  these  objects 
and  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  ;  nor  between  these  events  and 
the  phenomena  ascribed  to  the  heavenly  bodies.     The  relation? 


THE   SIXTH  SEAL.  165 

of  the  Scriptures  to  the  church,  are  not  hke  those  of  the  sun  to 
the  heavens,  but  rather  hke  its  relations  to  the  earth.  The  burn- 
ing of  copies  of  the  Scriptures  forms  no  parallel  with  the  dis- 
coloration of  the  sun.  Its  blackness  was  not  an  eclipse  or  an 
extinction,  but  a  change  of  nature.  The  destruction  of  copies 
of  the  sacred  word,  wrought  no  change  in  the  nature  of  the  reve^ 
lation  of  which  it  is  the  record.  The  apostasies  of  teachers  and 
private  Christians,  though  numerous,  were  not  universal.  So  far 
from  it,  the  ill-success  of  the  attempt  to  eradicate  Christianity, 
and  a  public  sympathy  for  the  sufferers  and  abhorrence  of  the  in- 
justice to  which  they  were  subjected,  were,  in  an  important  de- 
gree, the  reasons  of  the  discontinuance  of  the  persecution  and 
the  revolution  that  almost  immediately  followed,  under  Constan- 
tine,  in  favor  of  the  church.^  Nor  do  the  mere  heavens  exliibit 
any  analogy  to  the  church, — mere  vacant  and  limitless  space  to 
a  community  of  worshippers.  No  species  of  actions  can  be  as- 
cribed to  space.  It  has  nothing  that  is  capable  of  phenomena. 
The  departure  of  the  heavens,  was  the  disappearance  of  its  lu- 
minaries, clouds,  and  whatever  was  perceptible  by  the  eye,  not 
the  annihilation  or  removal  of  its  space.  If  those  luminaries 
therefore  denoted  the  Scriptures,  piety,  and  the  ministers  of  the 
church,  their  disappearance  must  symbolize  the  disappearance 
of  those  ministers,  the  word  of  God,  and  religion,  not  the  apos- 
tasy of  a  part  of  the  church  to  idolatry. 

Mr.  Mede,  Dr.  Cressener,  Dr.  More,  Mr,  Whiston,  Mr,  Jurieu, 
Mr.  Daubuz,  Mr.  Lowman,  Bishop  Newton,  Mr.  Elliott,  inter- 
pret the  symbols  of  the  defeat  and  extermination  by  Constantino 
of  his  antagonists,  Maximian,  Maxentius,  and  Licinius,  who  were 
idolaters,  and  the  change  of  the  religion  of  the  state  from  pagan- 
ism to  Christianity.  Mr.  Faber  expounds  it  wholly  of  that  reli- 
gious revolution.  But  that  construction  is  open  to  equal  objec- 
tion. First:  It  is  founded  on  the  assumption  that  their  expositions 
of  the  former  seals  are  correct,  which  have  been  shown  to  be 
erroneous.  Secondly  :  The  only  change  of  significance  wrought 
by  Constantine  was  the  change  of  religion, — the  public  recog- 
nition and  legalization  of  Christianity,  and  the  partial  discounte- 
nance and  overthrow  of  paganism.  His  victories  and  the  defeats 
of  his  antagonists  were  of  moment,  only  as  they  were  subsidiary 
to  that.  But  the  symbol  denotes  none  but  disastrous  events.  It 
indicates  nothing  that  can  be  considered  as  answering  to  the  ex- 
trication of  the  church  from  persecution.     It  is  to  be  wholly  con- 

*  Lactantii  Inst  lib.  v.  c.  22,  p.  491. 


166  THE  SIXTH  SEAL. 

strued  according  to  them,  therefore,  of  the  fall  of  paganism,  and 
as  representing  thence  but  half  of  the  change,  and  that  the  least 
significant.  Thirdly  :  But  no  parallel  subsists  between  the  sym- 
bolic objects  and  paganism  ;  nor  between  the  phenomena  as- 
cribed to  them  and  the  changes  wrought  in  the  relations  of  pagan- 
ism to  the  state.  Paganism  was  not  to  the  state  what  the  heaven- 
ly luminaries  are  to  the  earth.  It  was  not  the  ruling  power  of 
the  empire,  but  its  creature  and  subsidiary,  owing  its  establish- 
ment to  law,  the  appointment  of  its  chief  priests  and  the  pre- 
scription of  its  rites  to  the  senate,  and  sustaining  to  the  govern- 
ment no  other  relation  than  that  of  a  political  engine.  Paganism, 
moreover,  is  a  mere  mode  of  agency,  a  species  of  views,  affec- 
tions, and  actions  ;  not  an  agent.  The  sun,  moon,  and  stars, 
therefore,  cannot  serve  as  its  symbol,  no  analogy  subsisting  be- 
tween them.  Those  heavenly  bodies  are  real  existences,  exert- 
ing vast  influences  on  the  physical  world.  Their  counterpart 
must  also  be,  not  a  mere  agency,  but  agents,  or  a  combination  of 
agents,  exerting  important  influences  on  the  social  world.  Nor 
were  the  pontifex  maximus  and  inferior  priests  to  the  state  what 
the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  are  to  the  earth,  but  the  mere  creatures 
and  subsidiaries  of  the  civil  government.  If  the  several  orders 
of  pagan  priests  could  be  considered  as  a  counterpart  to  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars,  yet  they  sustained  no  relation  to  the  empire 
analogous  to  that  of  those  luminaries  to  the  earth.  They  were 
not  the  only  religious  teachers,  nor  the  most  influential,  nor  the 
true.  So  far  from  it,  the  motives  which  prompted  Constantine 
to  favor  Christianity  appear  to  have  been  drawn  on  the  one  hand 
from  the  great  numbers  and  important  influences  of  the  Christian 
teachers  and  their  disciples  ;  and  on  the  other,  from  a  general  dis- 
gust of  the  better  classes  at  the  cruelties  of  persecution,  and  wish 
for  toleration  and  safety  to  their  friends  and  associates.  Fourth- 
ly :  But  there  is  no  correspondence  between  the  changes  wrought 
by  Constantine  in  the  relations  of  paganism  to  the  state,  and  the 
phenomena  ascribed  to  the  heavenly  bodies.  The  discoloration 
of  the  sun  was  a  change  of  its  nature,  not  a  mere  interception  of 
its  light.  It  became  black  as  hair-sackcloth,  and  was  visible 
therefore,  not  withdrawn  from  the  eye  by  eclipse.  The  moou 
was  visible  also  at  the  same  time,  and  not  therefore  in  opposition, 
and  thence  not  in  eclipse.  But  no  such  total  and  portentous 
change  took  place  in  the  nature  of  paganism.  It  had  no  light 
whatever  to  lose.  It  could  not  be  made  blacker  to  the  eye,  or  a 
greater  object  of  horror  to  the  heart.  Fifthly  :  The  whole  change 
wrought  by  Constantine  in  the  religion  of  the  state,  was  laiuted 


THE  SIXTH  SEAL.  167 

on  the  one  hand  to  the  legalization  of  Christianity,^  and  to  the 
suppression  of  some  of  the  most  offensive  rites  and  a  general  dis- 
couragement of  paganism  on  the  other.^  It  did  not  extend  to  an 
overthrow  of  paganism.  Idolatry  not  only  continued  to  be  tol- 
erated, but  he  himself  held  the  station  of  pontifex  maximus 
through  his  whole  reign,  as  did  his  successors  to  Gratian.^  The 
subordinate  priests  still  exercised  their  office.  Many  of  their 
rites  were  still  celebrated,  and  their  temples  frequented.  Con- 
stantine  continued  to  use  the  arts  of  divination.  His  images  still 
received  an  idolatrous  homage  from  the  soldiers  and  citizens,  and 
at  death  liis  deification  was  decreed  by  the  senate.*  It  was  not 
till  the  reign  of  Theodosius  that  paganism  was  legally  discarded 
and  Christianity  formally  adopted  as  the  religion  of  the  state.* 
Finally  :  The  influence  on  the  votaries  of  idolatry  of  the  change 
introduced  by  Constantine,  exhibits  no  resemblance  to  the  ter- 
ror and  flight  of  the  kings  and  their  subjects,  who  as  Christ  ap- 
pears in  that  scene,  are  also  to  be  regarded  as  representing  them- 
selves. Those  votaries  were  disappointed,  chagrined,  and  in- 
flamed with  resentment  and  malice,  but  history  presents  not  the 
faintest  hint  that  they  deemed  they  beheld  the  Lamb  of  God  en- 
throned in  the  heavens  ;  nor  that,  impressed  with  an  apprehen- 
sion of  his  approach  to  inflict  on  his  enemies  the  vengeance 
threatened  in  his  word,  they  fled  promiscuously  to  the  mountains 
and  called  on  the  rocks  and  the  hills  to  cover  them  from  his  face  ; 
nor  is  the  supposition  admissible,  as  it  would  imply  that  though 
idolaters  they  were  yet  believers  in  the  deity  of  Christ  and  the 
predictions  of  his  word.  The  changes  wrought  by  Constantine 
exhibit  no  resemblances  then  whatever  to  the  representations  of 
the  symbol. 

Vitringa's  exposition  so  far  coincides  with  that  which  I  have 
given,  that  he  exhibits  the  symbols  as  foreshowing  the  overthrow 
of  the  antichrislian  civil  powers  of  the  western  Roman  empire. 
He  differs,  however,  in  interpreting  the  moon  and  stars  of  the 
pope  and  superior  prelates  of  the  idolatrous  church,  and  deems 
the  catastrophe  will  be  wrought  by  ordinary  causes,  and  without 
a  visible  interposition  of  the  Redeemer.  That  the  apostate  hie- 
rarchies must  be  dashed  from  their  stations  on  the  fall  of  the  gov- 
ernments by  which  they  are  upheld,  is  indeed  manifest ;  and  that 
they  are  in  some  degree  to  perish  together,  is  shown  in  the  de- 
Bcription  of  the  great  battle  of  God  Almighty,  when   the  false 

«  Eusebii  de  Vita  Constant,  lib.  ii.  c.  42,  56.      »  Ibid.  lib.  ii.  c.  44,  lib.  iv.  c.  23,  25. 
•  Zosimi  Hist.  lib.  iv.  c.  36.  *  Gibbon's  Hist.  chap.  xx.  and  xxL 

Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  x.  1.  12.  4. 


168  THE  SIXTH  SEAL. 

propliet  is  to  be  taken  with  the  wild  beast  and  cast  into  the  lake 
of  fire.  But  that  that  body  of  false  teachers  or  their  chief  is  de- 
noted by  any  of  these  symbols,  is  neither  certain  nor  probable. 
Their  office  is  to  show  the  relations  of  the  powers  that  are  to  be 
overthrown  to  the  social  world,  rather  than  to  one  another.  The 
relations,  moreover,  to  a  civil  government  of  an  apostate  and  sub- 
sidiary hierarchy,  are  not  like  those  of  the  moon  to  the  sun. 
Such  a  hierarchy  may  owe  its  support,  its  exclusive  permission 
to  teach,  and  its  power  to  persecute,  to  the  civil  government ; 
but  its  apostate  doctrines,  unlike  the  light  of  the  moon,  originate 
with  itself.  The  great  sorceress  of  Babylon  is  moreover  to  fall 
from  that  relation  to  the  civil  government,  which  is  symbolized 
by  her  station  on  the  wild  beast,  anterior  to  the  catastrophe  of 
the  beast  itself,  and  is  to  act  the  part  in  the  last  struggle,  not  of  a 
ruling,  but  a  subordinate  power.  And  finally,  that  a  visible  ad- 
vent of  the  Son  of  God  is  to  consummate  the  catastrophe,  is  not 
only  shown  by  the  consternation  and  ciy  of  the  kings  and  their 
subjects,  but  also  by  the  symbols  of  the  nineteenth  chapter,  which 
denote  his  personal  coming  at  the  destruction  of  the  wild  beast 
and  false  prophet. 

Cocceius  interprets  the  earthquake  of  the  wars  of  the  emperor 
Frederick  II.  against  the  German  princes,  and  others  of  France 
and  Spain  in  the  sixteenth  century  ;  the  obscuration  of  the  sun, 
of  the  false  teachings  of  the  pope  ;  the  fall  of  the  stars,  of  the  de- 
jection of  Roman  Catholic  bishops  from  their  sees  in  Germany, 
England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland  ;  and  the  removal  of  the  heavens, 
of  the  abolition  of  the  Catholic  hierarchies.  But  an  earthquake 
is  the  symbol  of  a  political  revolution,  not  of  a  njere  war  between 
princes  and  nations.  The  sun  is  the  symbol  of  the  supreme  civil 
rulers  of  an  empire,  not  of  a  pontiff;  the  removal  of  the  heavens 
accordingly  denotes  the  annihilation  of  the  government  in  which 
the  sun  represents  the  chief,  and  the  moon  and  stars  the  subor- 
dinate rulers.  And  finally,  those  contests  did  not  result,  as  is 
foreshown  of  the  agitations  denoted  by  the  symbols  of  this  seal, 
in  the  total  abolition  of  the  governments  of  those  nations. 

Dean  Woodhouse  interprets  the  symbols  of  a  great  day  of  ven- 
geance at  the  end  of  the  world  ;  Mr.  Cuninghame  of  the  same 
period  as  the  seventh  trumpet,  and  regards  the  events  foreshown 
as  having  commenced  with  the  French  revolution,  and  to  be  con- 
summated by  a  visible  advent  of  the  Son  of  God. 


THE  SEALING  OP  THE  SERVANTS  OF  GOD.        169 

SECTION  XIV. 

CHAPTER    VII.    1-8. 

THE  SEALING  OF  THE  SERVANTS  OF  GOD. 

And  after  these,  I  saw  four  angels  stationed  at  the  four  corners  of 
the  earth,  having  power  over  the  four  winds  of  the  earth,  that  wind 
should  neither  blow  on  the  earth,  nor  on  the  sea,  nor  on  any  tree. 
And  I  saw  another  angel  ascending  from  the  sunrising,  having  the 
seal  of  the  living  God.  And  he  cried  with  a  loud  voice  to  the  four 
angels  to  whom  it  was  given  to  injure  the  earth  and  the  sea,  saying, 
Ye  may  not  injure  the  earth,  nor  the  sea,  nor  the  trees,  until  we  can 
seal  the  servants  of  our  God  on  their  foreheads.  And  I  heard  the 
number  of  the  sealed,  a  hundred  forty-four  thousand  were  sealed 
of  the  whole  race  of  the  sons  of  Israel.  Of  the  tribe  of  Judah  twelve 
thousand  were  sealed,  of  the  tribe  of  Reuben  twelve  thousand  were 
sealed,  of  the  tribe  of  Gad  twelve  thousand  were  sealed,  of  the  tribe 
of  Asser  twelve  thousand  were  sealed,  of  the  tribe  of  Naphtali  twelve 
thousand  were  sealed,  of  the  tribe  of  Manasseh  twelve  thousand 
were  sealed,  of  the  tribe  of  Simeon  twelve  thousand  were  sealed, 
of  the  tribe  of  Levi  twelve  thousand  were  sealed,  of  the  tribe  of  Is- 
sachar  twelve  thousand  were  sealed,  of  the  tribe  of  Zebulon  twelve 
thousand  were  sealed,  of  the  tribe  of  Joseph  twelve  thousand  were 
sealed,  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin  twelve  thousand  were  sealed. 

The  four  winds  denote  all  the  winds,  and  the  four  angels  all 
the  powers  that  excite  and  direct  their  violence,  manifestly  from 
the  representation  that  they  have  power  over  them  that  wind  should 
not  blow  on  the  land,  nor  on  the  sea,  nor  on  any  tree.  They  are 
obviously  tempestuous  winds,  which  when  excited  are  to  sweep 
land  and  sea,  and  spread  them  with  desolation.  The  peculiar 
office  of  the  angels  is,  not  to  restrain  them,  but  to  rouse  and  di- 
rect their  violence  ;  not  to  make  them  salutary,  but  the  instru- 
ments of  universal  devastation.  The  restraint  from  injuring  with 
them  till  the  servants  of  God  can  be  sealed,  is  a  restraint  accord- 
ingly from  entering  on  their  official  work  till  that  seahng  can  be 
accomplished. 

What  then  are  these  symbolic  winds  ?  What  is  there  that 
sweeps  over  the  great  surface  of  the  social  and  political  world  with 
an  irresistible  and  mischievous  power,  analogous  to  whirlwinds 
driving  in  every  direction  over  land  and  sea,  stripping  the  trees 
of  leaves  and  boughs,  and  whirling  them  into  the  air,  prostrating 

22 


170        THE  SEALING  OF  THE  SERVANTS  OF  GOD. 

dwellings,  wrenching  the  sturdy  forests  from  their  seals,  and 
strewing  the  earth  with  ruin  and  the  ocean  with  wrecks  ?  Com- 
binations and  masses  of  men  under  the  influence  of  new  and  ex- 
citing opinions  ;  multitudes  and  nations  roused  to  passion  and 
uniting  in  a  violent  demolition  of  social  and  political  institu- 
tions, and  the  destruction  of  those  who  obstruct  their  ambition,  or 
repress  their  madness.  Who  are  the  angels  that  arouse  these 
tempestuous  blasts  ?  The  authors  and  propagators  of  those 
opinions  ;  the  fomentors  and  directors  of  the  violences  to  which 
they  excite.  That  they  are  not  to  enter  on  their  work  till  the 
angel  from  the  sunrising  can  seal  the  servants  of  God,  implies 
that  though  the  elements  of  devastation  are  already  in  existence, 
yet  their  being  blown  into  a  whirlwind  is  to  be  a  consequence  in 
some  manner  of  that  sealing.  It  is  by  that  process  that  the  re- 
ligious and  political  atmosphere  is  to  be  brought  into  the  requi- 
site state  for  the  generation  of  the  destructive  tempest.  No  de- 
lineation is  given  of  the  figure  of  the  four  angels,  which  is  natural 
from  the  extreme  distance  of  their  station. 

To  seal  the  servants  of  God,  is  not  to  constitute  them  such, 
but  to  fix  a  mark  on  their  brows  by  which  they  are  conspicuously 
shown  to  be  his.  It  is  as  his  servants,  not  as  his  enemies  that 
they  are  sealed,  and  the  change  wrought  by  their  sealing  is  not 
in  their  character,  but  their  aspect.  The  symbol  denotes,  there- 
fore, that  the  servants  of  God,  ere  the  whirlwind  of  ruin  begins, 
are  to  be  led  to  assume  a  new  attitude  towards  the  apostate 
church  and  usurping  civil  rulers,  by  which,  and  in  a  manner  never 
before  seen,  they  are  to  be  shown  to  be  indubitably  his  true  peo- 
ple. What  that  relation  is  to  be  is  not  left  to  conjecture,  but 
revealed  in  a  subsequent  vision,  in  which  their  characteristics  are 
exhibited  as  the  opposites  of  those  that  distinguish  the  apostate 
church.  They  are  pure,  not  adulterers  seduced  by  the  harlot 
great  Babylon  to  worship  the  wild  beast,  its  image,  or  oth- 
er creatures,  which  is  the  homage  of  apostates.  They  are 
followers  of  the  Lamb  wherever  he  may  lead,  not  of  the  wild 
beast  and  false  prophet.  They  are  sincere,  not  hypocritical  ; 
and  without  spot,  not  like  the  worshippers  of  the  beast,  whose 
religion  adds  to  their  guilt.  It  is  a  public  and  formal  dissent, 
therefore,  from  great  Babylon  the  legalized  hierarchies,  renun- 
ciation of  the  dominion  over  the  people  of  God  which  the  wild 
beast  and  false  prophet  have  assumed,  and  testimony  against  it 
as  an  arrogation  of  authority  over  .his  laws.  The  angel  who 
bears  the  seal  represents  those  who  excite  and  conduct  this  sep- 
aration and  testimony ;  and  their  agency,  it  is  seen  from  other 


THE  SEALING  OF  THE  SERVANTS  OF  GOD.  171 

parts  of  the  prophecy,  is  to  precede  the  agitation  that  is  to  issue 
in  the  destruction  of  great  Babylon. 

The  tribes  denote  the  denominations  of  the  church.  As  the 
twelve  were  all  the  divisions  of  the  Israelitish  family,  they  rep- 
resent all  llie  branches  of  the  Christian  profession  that  contain 
true  servants  of  God.  This  movement,  therefore,  is  not  to  be 
confined  to  one  denomination,  but  to  extend  to  all  churches,  either 
nationalized,  or  existing  in  the  territories  of  the  wild  beast,  that 
contain  true  worsin'ppers.  The  precision  of  the  number  denotes 
a  limitation  probably,  rather  than  a  universality  of  the  sealing ; 
that  a  part  only,  not  that  all  the  servants  of  God  are  to  share  in 
this  movement.  This  is  indicated  by  the  summons  of  his  people 
to  come  out  of  great  Babylon,  the  nationalized  hierarchies,  after 
the  slaughter  and  resurrection  of  the  witnesses  and  her  fall, 
chap.  xi.  13,  xviii.  1-4.  The  sealed  and  the  144,000  on  Mount 
Zion  chap.  xiv.  1,  are  the  same. 

The  questions  between  the  true  and  the  apostate  church,  be- 
tween God's  exclusive  authority  over  the  faith  and  worship  of 
his  people,  and  the  impious  claims  of  the  wild  beast  and  usurp- 
ing hierarchies,  are  to  be  so  thoroughly  discussed  and  placed  in 
so  clear  a  light,  that  a  vast  body  of  the  true  believers  will  under- 
stand and  appreciate  them,  feel  summoned  as  by  a  voice  from 
heaven  to  withdraw  from  all  relations  to  those  anlichristian  pow- 
ers, the  continuance  of  which  would  imply  a  sanction  of  tiieir 
usurpations,  and  to  assert  and  vindicate  the  rights  of  God  against 
them.  Those  also  who  still  remain  associated  with  them  are 
after  the  resurrection  of  the  witnesses  and  the  fall  of  the  nation- 
alized hierarchies,  to  be  again  summoned  to  renounce  their  com- 
munion, as  will  appear  in  the  exposition  of  subsequent  visions. 

To  rise  to  the  relation  and  fulfil  the  office  to  which  the  sealed 
are  thus  to  be  called,  will  be  to  take  an  attitude  both  towards 
God,  and  towards  the  wild  beast,  its  image,  and  the  nationahzed 
church,  which  no  body  of  believers  has  ever  yet  assumed.  'I'he 
great  and  palpable  fact  that  to  nationalize  a  church  and  dictate 
its  faith  and  worship,  is  not  only  to  usurp  the  prerogatives  of 
God,  but  to  assert  a  dominion  over  his  rights  and  laws,  has  never 
been  discerned  and  proclaimed,  either  by  the  pure  worshippers 
as  a  body,  or  even  by  individuals.  The  ground  on  which  reli- 
gious toleration  has  been  urged  in  the  discussions  that  have  agi- 
tated the  church  for  three  hundred  years,  has  been  that  compul- 
sion is  a  violation  of  the  rights  of  conscience  ;  not  that  it  is  an 
arrogation  of  dominion  over  the  prerogatives  and  legislation  of 
the  Almighty.    Yet  such  it  indisputably  is.     When  civil  rulen 


172  THE  SEALING  OF  THE  SERVANTS  OF  GOD. 

nationalize  a  church,  they  assume  the  right  of  determining  what 
the  faith  and  homage  of  their  subjects  shall  be.  They  appoint 
a  creed  ;  they  enjoin  a  worship  ;  they  prohibit  all  others.  They 
offer  their  will  as  a  reason  why  that  creed  should  be  held  and 
that  worship  offered  ;  they  treat  a  dissent  as  a  violation  of  their 
rights,  and  punish  it  as  a  crime.  They  thence  clearly  assume 
that  the  laws  which  God  imposes  on  their  subjects  are  under 
their  dominion.  Their  procedure  implies  and  arrogates  a  ju- 
risdiction over  the  duties  their  subjects  owe  to  him,  and  thence 
over  his  right  to  their  obedience  and  homage.  When,  there- 
fore, they  demand  and  compel  submission  to  this  usurped  au- 
thority over  his  laws,  they  enjoin  and  compel  a  homage  to  them- 
selves that  is  due  only  to  him.  This  is  the  relation  accord- 
ingly in  which  their  usurpation  is  exhibited  in  this  prophecy. 
They  who  approve  and  support  their  legislation  over  the  doctrines 
and  laws  of  the  gospel,  are  represented  as  worshippers  of  the 
wild  beast ;  and  they  who  assent  to  a  similar  usurpation  by  pa- 
pal ecclesiastics,  are  exhibited  as  worshippers  of  the  image  of 
the  wild  beast.  And  that  is  manifestly  the  import  of  those  acts. 
If  civil  and  ecclesiastical  rulers  have  no  jurisdiction  over  the  le- 
gislation of  God,  why  do  they  attempt  to  re-enjoin  his  religious 
laws  on  their  subjects  on  their  own  authority,  and  punish  a  non- 
submission  to  their  dictation  as  a  violation  of  their  rights  ? 
If  it  be  not  their  prerogative  to  determine  what  the  duties  are 
which  their  subjects  owe  to  God,  why  do  they  interfere  between 
him  and  them,  and  attempt  the  determination  of  those  duties  ? 
If  it  be  the  prerogative  of  the  Almighty  alone  to  assert  and  main- 
tain his  rights  by  legislation,  why  do  they  arrogate  that  office  as 
being  equally  theirs  ?  And  why,  unless  they  are  regarded  as 
truly  possessing  the  powers  which  they  thus  arrogate,  are  their 
assumptions  approved  and  vindicated  by  their  subjects  ?  Nothing 
can  be  clearer,  then,  than  that  when  they  appoint  a  creed  and  en- 
join a  worship  on  their  subjects,  they  arrogate  a  dominion  over  his 
laws  and  rights,  and  treat  him  as  subordinate  to  themselves.  If 
they  appoint  the  same  faith  and  worship  which  he  has  enjoined, 
they  still  treat  them  as  subject  to  their  authority.  If  they  enjoin 
a  different  system  of  doctrines  and  rites,  they  assume  the  power 
of  rescinding  his  laws  and  superseding  them  by  their  own.  And 
such  would  be  instantly  seen  and  felt  by  every  civil  and  ecclesi- 
astical ruler  to  be  the  import  of  a  similar  agency  of  a  foreign  ruler 
towards  them.  Were  the  emperor  of  Russia  to  issue  an  edict 
enjoining  the  laws  enacted  by  the  British  legislature  on  the  sub- 
jects of  the  British  empire,  enforce  them  by  new  sanctions,  treat 


THE  SEALING  OF  THE  SERVANTS  OF  GOD.         173 

a  violation  of  them  as  an  infringement  of  his  rights,  and  attempt 
to  punish  it  as  a  crime,  it  w^ould  be  interpreted  by  the  monarch 
and  legislators  of  Great  Britain  as  an  arrogation  of  supreme  do- 
minion over  that  empire,  and  implying  that  the  obligations  of 
its  population  to  them  are  subordinate  to  their  obligations  to 
him. 

To  nationalize  a  church  therefore,  is  to  offer  the  most  flagrant 
violation  to  the  rights  and  insult  to  the  majesty  of  God  ;  and  to 
assent  to  such  a  nationalization,  is  to  sanction  that  violation,  and 
pay  a  homage  to  usurping  creatures  that  is  due  only  to  him. 
And  to  perceive  and  appreciate  this  truth,  to  discern  and  honor 
the  rights  of  God  in  their  greatness  and  sanctity,  publicly  and 
appropriately  to  assert  and  vindicate  them,  in  opposition  to  the 
usurpations  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  rulers,  and  withdraw  from 
connection  with  churches  acknowledging  their  usurped  jurisdic- 
tion, will  be  to  rise  to  an  attitude  towards  God  and  civil  and  eccle- 
siastical rulers  which  his  servants  have  never  yet  assumed,  and 
fulfil  an  office  they  have  never  yet  discharged.  The  great  advo- 
cates hitherto  of  toleration  have  placed  their  objections  to  com- 
pulsion and  persecution  on  no  such  ground.  Bishop  Taylor,  in 
his  voluminous  work  on  the  subject,  lavished  the  treasures  of  his 
learning  and  the  subtleties  of  his  genius  in  an  endeavor  to  main- 
tain on  the  one  hand  the  divine  right  of  kings,  and  the  obligation 
on  the  other  of  subjects  to  non-resistance  and  passive  obedience, 
justified  and  applauded  the  assumption  by  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
rulers  of  jurisdiction  over  their  faith  and  worship,  and  cited  even 
the  arrogation  by  the  heathen  emperors  of  that  dominion,  as  au- 
thority for  a  similar  usurpation  by  Christian  princes.  He  re- 
garded the  right  as  belonging  naturally  and  necessarily  to  mon- 
archs  and  bishops,  ascribed  to  their  exercise  of  it  an  absolute  and 
divine  authority,  and  exhibited  it  as  under  no  restriction  whatever 
in  regard  to  the  subject,  and  none  in  respect  to  God,  except  that 
no  doctrine  or  worship  was  to  be  imposed  but  such  as  he  has 
enjoined.  His  principles  accordingly  yield  no  liberty  whatever 
of  dissent  to  the  subject.  It  is  only  by  surrendering  them  that 
he  grants  that  obedience  may  be  withheld  from  the  law  of  the 
creature,  when  it  is  seen  to  be  at  w^ar  with  that  of  the  creator. 
His  pleas  for  toleration  in  reality  therefore,  if  interpreted  by  his 
doctrine,  are  nothing  more  than  reasons  that  rulers  should  impose 
no  faith  and  worship  on  their  subjects,  but  such  as  God  enjoins. 
If  not  so  interpreted,  and  they  are  undoubtedly  incapable  of  that 
construction,  except  by  the  rejection  of  all  their  significance,  then 
his  theories  of  the  powers  of  rulers  and  the  rights  of  subjects  are 


174         THE  SEALING  OF  THE  SERVANTS  OF  GOD. 

wholly  inconsistent  with  each  other.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  behave 
that  he  was  not  aware  of  their  inconsistency.  Had  it  been  his 
aim  in  his  doctrine  to  justify  the  arrogations  of  Charles  I.  and 
Archbisiiop  Laud,  but  in  his  reasonings  against  persecution, 
merely  to  embarrass  the  anti-prelatists  who  had  risen  to  power 
and  driven  him  from  his  station,  and  restrain  them  from  retorting 
the  cruelties  which  his  own  party  had  been  accustomed  to  inflict, 
he  would  naturally  have  indulged  in  the  self-contradiction  which 
his  discussions  exhibit. 

Mr.  Locke's  plea  for  toleration  is  founded  chiefly  on  the  ground 
that  the  magistrate's  office  has  relation  solely  to  civil  aff'airs,  that 
he  transcends  his  powers  therefore  and  encroaches  on  the  rights 
of  the  subject,  when  he  imposes  a  creed  and  a  worship  ;  not  that 
he  infringes  the  prerogatives  and  arrogates  a  dominion  over  the 
laws  of  the  Almighty. 

While  Bishop  Hoadly  held  that  God  is  the  only  rightful  law- 
giver of  the  church,  and  denied  to  magistrates  and  ecclesiastics 
authority  to  impose  any  other  faith  or  rites  than  those  which  he 
has  enjoined,  he  yet  held  that  they  may  impose  those,  and  ap- 
proved accordingly  and  supported  the  English  establishment,  on 
the  ground  that  its  faith  and  worship  are  those  which  are  ap- 
pointed by  God. 

Bishop  Warburton  held  that  although  the  church  is  naturally 
independent  of  the  state,  it  yet  may  voluntarily  place  itself  under 
its  jurisdiction,  and  that  it  is  the  right  and  policy  of  the  state  to 
give  it  a  civil  establishment.  He  accordingly  approved  and  ad- 
vocated its  nationalization,  and  objected  to  intolerance  and  per- 
secution, only  on  the  ground  that  they  are  violations  of  the  rights 
of  conscience,  and  deemed  they  were  justifiable  when  thought 
requisite  to  the  safety  of  the  state. 

In  like  manner  the  objections  of  the  English  dissenters  from 
the  days  of  Elizabeth  to  the  present  lime,  have  been  directed, 
not  against  the  principle  of  an  establishment,  but  against  the 
doctrines,  rites,  and  ceremonies  which  the  British  legislature 
have  imposed,  and  the  violation  by  compulsion  of  the  rights  of 
conscience  ;  and  are  generally  extremely  frivolous  compared  to 
the  objection  to  the  principle  of  nationalization  itself.  Tims  Mr. 
Towgood,  one  of  the  ablest  of  their  writers,  argues  not  against 
nationalization,  but  only  against  the  imposition  of  doctrines,  rites, 
and  ceremonies  which  are  not  authorized  by  the  gospel,  the  vio- 
lation of  conscience,  and  other  peculiarities  of  the  establishment 
which  he  deemed  unnecessary  imperfections  of  nationalization. 
He  approved  of  a  civil  establishment,  and  desired  it  to  be  ex- 


THE  SEALING  OF  THE  SERVANTS  OF  GOD.  175 

tended  to  his  own  and  other  denominations  ;^  and  such  it  is  said 
is  the  desire  at  the  present  time  of  the  EngUsh  non-conformists 
generally.^  The  office  to  which  the  sealed  are  to  be  called,  is 
one  therefore  which  no  body  of  believers  has  ever  yet  fulfilled. 

Commentators,  though  varying  widely  in  their  expositions, 
universally  assign  a  different  meaning  to  this  symbol.  A  large 
number  interpret  it  as  denoting  the  exemption  of  the  true  people 
of  God  from  the  calamities  with  which  the  tempest  winds  are  to 
overwhelm  his  enemies.  Thus  Grotius,  Dr.  Hammond,  Eich- 
horn,  Rosenmuller,  exhibit  it  as  foreshowing  the  withdrawment 
of  the  Jewish  Christians  from  Jerusalem  and  Judea  to  Pella  or 
elsewhere,  anterior  to  the  ravage  of  the  country  and  overthrow 
of  the  city  by  the  Romans  ;  Vitringa  interprets  it  of  the  preser- 
vation of  the  evangelical  church  of  Europe,  amidst  the  dangers 
of  a  religious  war  by  the  civil  powers,  which  he  regarded  the 
tempest  as  foreshadowing;  Mr.  Mede,Dr.Cressener, Mr.  Jurieu, 
Mr.  Winston,  Bishop  Newton,  of  the  protection  of  the  true  church 
from  the  evils  denoted  by  the  symbols  of  the  first  trumpets 
chiefly  ;  Dean  Woodhouse,  Mr.  Cuninghame,  Mr.  Bickersteth,  of 
its  preservation  from  the  judgments  by  which  at  the  seventh 
trumpet  the  antichristian  powers  are  to  be  overthrown  ;  and  al- 
lege as  an  important  ground  or  confirmation  of  their  construction, 
the  ninth  of  Ezekiel.  But  that  interpretation  is  not  in  harmony 
with  the  symbol.  The  office  of  a  mark  clearly  is  to  distinguish, 
not  to  preserve  ;  to  show  to  whom  the  person  or  object  marked 
belongs,  not  what  is  to  be  its  destiny.  Nor  is  it  in  consistence 
with  analogy  to  regard  the  mark  as  the  means  or  occasion  of 
preservation.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  when  the  slaughter 
which  the  vision  of  Ezekiel  symbolized  took  place,  the  slaugh- 
terers were  withheld  from  destroying  the  people  of  God  by  no- 
ticing a  peculiar  mark  on  their  foreheads.  The  marking  there- 
fore denoted  some  analogous  agency,  anterior  to  the  slaughter, 
by  which  they  became  conspicuously  discriminated  from  the 
worshippers  of  idols.  That  they  were  to  be  exempted  from  the 
slaughter,  was  shown  not  by  the  mark,  but  by  the  direction  sub- 
sequently given  to  the  executioners  not  to  approach  them,  and 
which  implies  that  they  were  not  to  be  still  promiscuously  inter- 
mixed with  those  who  were  to  be  slain.  Had  not  that  direction 
been  added,  who  could  have  inferred  with  assurance  that  they 
were  to  be  exempted  from  the  sword,  which  was  commissioned 
to  destroy  so  many  others  ?     Nor  whether  that  vision  foreshad- 

'  Towgood's  Dissent,  pp.  72,  140,  164. 
*  Essays  on  Christian  Union.    Essay  vii. 


176         THE  SEALING  OF  THE  SERVANTS  OF  GOD. 

owed  the  destruction  of  the  apostate  Jews  by  the  Chaldeans,  or 
the  Romans,  is  it  to  be  doubted  that  the  true  worshippers  were 
led  to  refuse  all  concurrence  in  their  apostasies,  to  testify  in  a 
public  and  emphatic  manner  their  disapprobation  of  their  rebel- 
lion, whether  it  were  the  worship  of  idols  or  the  rejection  of 
Christ,  and  maintain  the  attitude  of  faithful  servants  of  God.  It 
is  incredible  that  during  the  ravage  of  Judea  and  siege  of  Jeru- 
salem by  the  Chaldeans,  a  single  true  worshipper  should  have 
refrained  from  expressing  his  abliorrence  of  the  idolatry  which 
drew  that  scourge  on  the  nation,  and  notwithstanding  the  exhor- 
tations of  the  prophets,  continued  in  such  an  attitude  as  to  sanc- 
tion the  apostasy  of  the  priests  and  rulers.  It  is  incredible  that 
under  the  example  and  teachings  of  the  apostles  and  their  disci- 
ples, and  the  extraordinary  influences  and  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
a  single  believer  in  Christ  should  have  wholly  abstained,  as  the 
Roman  war  approached,  from  the  expression  of  his  faith,  and 
continued  in  such  a  relation  to  the  unbelieving  faction,  as  to 
countenance  their  rejection  of  the  Messiah,  and  trust  in  deceivers 
and  false  Chrisls. 

The  sealing  of  the  servants  of  God,  in  like  manner,  is  not  a 
symbol  of  their  exemption  from  the  blast  of  the  tempest  wind, 
but  of  a  change  in  their  relations  to  the  antichristian  powers  an- 
terior to  that  blast,  by  which  they  are  to  withdraw  all  sanction 
from  the  usurpations  and  apostasies  of  the  wild  beast  and  nation- 
alized hierarchies,  and  own  and  honor  Christ  as  alone  the  king 
and  lawgiver  of  the  church.  So  far  from  being  exempted  from 
the  tempest,  its  excitement  is  to  result  in  some  manner  from  their 
being  sealed,  and  its  violence  to  be  directed  in  an  eminent  degree 
against  them. 

Mr.  Brightman  and  Mr.  Daubuz  regard  Constanline  the  Great 
as  the  angel  from  the  east,  and  interpret  the  sealing  of  his  agen- 
cy in  freeing  the  church  from  the  obstructions  of  persecution, 
establishing  it  in  peace,  and  prompting  it  to  a  more  discriminating 
and  authoritative  profession  of  the  true  faith.  But  in  the  first 
place,  that  construction  is  founded  on  the  false  assumption  that 
their  exposition  of  the  seals,  which  refers  them  to  events  anterior 
to  Constantine,  is  correct ;  and  in  the  next,  the  change  wrought 
by  that  monarch  in  the  condition  of  the  church,  was  wholly  un- 
like that  which  the  symbol  denotes.  The  agency  of  the  angel 
from  the  sunrising  is  limited  to  the  servants  of  God.  He  affixes 
the  seal  on  no  others.  But  the  public  recognition  by  Constan- 
line of  the  Christian  religion  as  of  divine  origin,  and  allowance 
of  all  who  chose  to  profess  it,  and  worship  according  to  its  rites 


THE  SEALING  OF  THE  SERVANTS  OF  GOD.         177 

without  obstruction,  wliich  they  allege  as  denoted  by  that  agen- 
cy, had  no  such  limitation.  The  large  influx  of  new  professors 
which  it  occasioned,  was  not  solely  of  true  worshippers.  Prompt- 
ed by  fashion,  ambition  of  place,  and  not  improbably  by  fear, 
as  well  as  by  an  ingenuous  faith,  the  crowds  that  suddenly  turned 
from  idolatry  to  the  temples  of  Christ,  were  in  a  large  degree 
worldly  and  hypocritical,  whose  accession  therefore  was  an  adul- 
teration instead  of  an  improvement  of  the  church.'  Nor  was  the 
agency  of  Constantine  limited  to  the  grant  of  toleration  and  en- 
couragement of  the  servants  of  God  to  make  an  open  profession 
of  their  faith.  He  attempted  hkewise  to  produce,  through  the 
canons  of  councils  and  his  own  edicts,  a  uniformity  of  belief,  but 
without  success.  So  far  from  producing  unity,  the  church  was 
agitated  during  his  reign  by  diversities  of  opinion,  and  rent  with 
contentions  to  a  degree  that  had  before  been  wholly  unknown. 
Nor  were  the  grounds  legitimate  on  which  he  attempted  to  en- 
force that  uniformity.  He  claimed  the  right  to  dictate  to  whom 
his  subjects  should  pay  their  religious  regards,  and  what  homage 
they  should  offer ;  and  was  guilty  therein  of  that  usurpation  of 
the  rights  of  God  which  is  the  peculiar  crime  of  the  civil  pow- 
ers symbolized  by  the  seven-headed  dragon  and  the  ten-horned 
wild  beast.  He  is  accordingly  represented,  as  well  as  his  suc- 
cessors, by  the  seventh  head  of  that  dragon.  No  error  can  be 
more  consummate  therefore  than  to  imagine  that  he  who  thus 
usurped  the  prerogatives  of  the  Almighty,  and  demanded  a  su- 
preme homage  of  himself,  was  symbolized  by  the  angel  whose 
office  it  is  to  prompt  the  servants  of  God  to  renounce  that  homage 
of  creatures,  separate  themselves  from  all  idolaters  and  apostates, 
and  own  and  honor  God  as  the  only  legitimate  object  of  worship, 
and  the  only  rightful  religious  lawgiver.  The  symbolization  of 
him  with  his  successors  as  the  seventh  head  of  the  dragon,  was 
proper  also  obviously,  as  he  continued  not  only  to  tolerate  idola- 
try, but  to  sanction  it  in  the  homage  of  his  own  image  ;  and, 
finally,  he  attempted  to  enforce  submission  to  his  claims  of  au- 
thority, by  the  persuasions  of  persecution,  deprivation  of  office, 
banishment,  confiscation,  imprisonment,  and  death.  No  recitals 
of  history  are  more  incontrovertible  than  that  his  beneficial  agen- 
cy towards  the  church  was  limited  to  the  grant  of  toleration. 
His  public  and  lavish  patronage,  his  assertion  of  authority  over 
its  faith  and  worship,  his  modifications  of  its  government,  and 
attempts  to  make  it  subservient  to  himself,  were  fruitful  of  mis-- 

*  Eusebii  de  Vita  Constant,  lib.  iv.  c.  54. 
23 


178         THE  SEALING  OF  THE  SERVANTS  OF  GOD. 

chief,  and  contributed  largely  to  that  corruption  of  doctrine,  of 
worship,  and  of  manners,  which  soon  became  its  characteristic. 

Mr.  Lowman  refers  the  vision  likewise  to  the  reign  of  Con- 
stantine,  and  interprets  the  sealing  of  large  accessions  to  the 
church  by  baptism.  But  that  exposition  proceeds  on  the  as- 
sumption that  the  events  denoted  by  the  first  six  seals  were  anterior 
to  the  reign  of  Constantine,  which  has  been  shown  to  be  errone- 
ous. It  is  wholly  irreconcileable  also  with  the  relations  and 
character  of  the  sealed.  They  are  already  of  the  visible  church 
denoted  by  the  tribes  of  Israel,  not  to  be  introduced  into  it  by 
baptism.  They  are  already  the  servants  of  God,  not  to  be  con- 
stituted such.  The  office  of  the  sealing  angel  is  to  work  a  change 
in  their  relations  as  members  of  the  visible  church,  by  which 
they  shall  be  conspicuously  shown  to  be  the  true  servants  of  God, 
in  contradistinction  from  the  apostate  members  who  marshal 
themselves  under  the  banners  of  the  wild  beast  and  nationalized 
hierarchies. 

Mr.  Faber  regards  the  symbol  as  denoting  a  separation,  in  the 
age  of  Constantine,  of  the  faithful  followers  of  Christ  from  the 
great  body  of  the  visible  church,  by  their  retreat  into  the  valleys 
of  the  Alps.  But  that  is  to  misconceive  the  symbol.  The  of- 
fice of  the  seal  is  to  render  those  on  whom  it  is  impressed  con- 
spicuous as  the  children  of  God,  in  contradistinction  from  wor- 
shippers of  the  wild  beast ;  not  to  withdraw  them  into  seclusion. 

Mr.  Elliott,  interpreting  the  vision  also  of  the  same  period,  re- 
gards the  angel  bearing  the  seal  as  the  Son  of  God,  the  seal  as 
denoting  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  illumination  by  his  influences  and 
quickening  of  the  true  servants  of  God  in  the  visible  church  as  the 
sealing,  and  their  holiness  the  mark  on  their  foreheads.  But  this 
in  like  manner  proceeds  on  a  false  interpretation  of  the  period 
and  import  of  the  seals.  It  contradicts  the  law  of  symbolization 
in  exhibiting  the  angel  as  a  representative  of  the  Son  of  God,  and 
the  seal  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  A  seal  is  an  instrument,  not  an  agent. 
And  finally,  it  implies  that  the  being  sealed  is  no  peculiarity  of 
the  servants  of  God  at  the  period  to  which  the  vision  refers,  but 
the  common  characteristic  of  all  his  servants  of  all  ages,  and  con- 
tradicts, therefore,  the  whole  representation  of  the  vision.  Are 
there  any  of  the  servants  of  God  who  are  not  enlightened  by  the 
Spirit,  quickened  and  made  to  bring  forth  the  fruits  of  righteous- 
ness ?  Is  there  the  slightest  indication  in  history,  that  liie  true 
people  of  God  became  more  conspicuously  such  by  discrimina- 
tion from  mere  nominal  Christians,  and  iiigher  degrees  of  knowl- 
edge and  piety,  during  the  reign  of  Constantine  and  his  succes- 


THE    MULTITUDE    IN    WHITE    ROBES.  179 

sors,  than  at  former  periods  ?  No  assumption  can  be  more  at 
war  with  the  universal  representation  of  the  writers  of  that  and 
the  following  ages.  How  is  the  assumption  that  the  agency  of 
the  seal-bearing  angel  is  no  peculiarity  of  the  period,  to  be  re- 
conciled with  his  ascent  from  the  east  as  though  entering  on  his 
mission,  the  representation  that  he  was  about  to  commence  and 
speedily  to  complete  it,  and  the  restraint  of  the  tempest  angels 
from  entering  on  their  office,  till  he  could  fulfil  his  ?  AH  the  con- 
structions which  refer  the  vision  to  those  early  ages,  are  thus 
alike  inconsistent  with  the  symbol  and  the  characteristics  of  those 
periods. 

The  expositions  given  by  Vitringa,  DeanWoodhouse,  and  Mr. 
Cuninghame  of  the  agents  and  subordinate  parts  of  the  symbol, 
are  inaccurate  also,  as  well  as  of  its  principal  aim.  Thus  Vi- 
tringa regards  the  seal-bearing  angel  as  representing  the  Holy 
Spirit ;  Mr.  Cuninghame  exhibits  him  as  denoting  the  Son  of 
God,  and  the  seal  as  an  emblem  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  all  which 
are  against  analogy.  Dean  Woodhouse  regards  the  sealed  as  not 
improbably  Israelitish  Christians,  and  the  sealing  as  implying, 
therefore,  a  previous  conversion  of  the  Jews,  which  is  to  treat  the 
symbol  and  those  whom  it  represents  as  of  the  same  species,  and 
is  thence  against  analogy.  If  the  tribes  represent  the  IsraeHtes, 
why  do  not  the  angels  denote  angels,  the  winds  winds,  the  seal 
a  seal,  and  the  numbers  literal  numbers  ?  Mr.  Cuninghame  re- 
gards it  as  the  office  of  the  four  angels  to  restrain  the  winds,  not 
to  arouse  and  direct  them,  and  accordingly,  with  many  others,  in- 
terprets the  winds  as  the  symbols  of  destruction  itself,  instead  of 
the  causes  which  produce  it.  Their  interpretations  are  marked 
by  other  subordinate  inaccuracies,  but  these  are  sufficient  to  show 
that  a  strict  adherence  to  analogy  requires  the  construction  which 
I  have  given. 


SECTION   XV. 

CHAPTER    VII.   9-17. 

THE    MULTITUDE    IN    WHITE    ROBES. 

After  these,  I  looked,  and  behold  a  great  multitude  which  no  one 
could  number,  of  every  nation  and  tribes  and  peoples  and  tongues, 
standing  before  the  throne  and  before  the  Lamb,  clothed  in  white 


180  THE  MULTITUDE  IN  WHITE  ROBES. 

robes  and  [having]  palm  branches  in  their  hands.  And  they  cry 
with  a  loud  voice,  saying,  The  salvation  to  our  God  who  sits  on  the 
throne  and  to  the  Lamb.  And  all  the  angels  stood  in  the  circuit  of 
the  throne  and  of  the  elders  and  of  the  four  living  creatures,  and  fell 
before  the  throne  on  their  faces  and  worshipped  God,  saying.  Amen. 
The  blessing,  and  the  glory,  and  the  wisdom,  and  the  thanks,  and  the 
honor,  and  the  dominion,  and  the  might  to  our  God  forever  and  ever, 
Amen.  And  one  of  the  elders  spake,  saying  to  me,  These  who  are 
clothed  in  white  robes,  who  are  they,  and  whence  have  they  come  1 
And  I  said  to  him,  O  my  Lord,  thou  knowest.  And  he  said  to  me, 
These  are  they  who  come  out  of  the  great  tribulation  and  washed 
their  robes  and  purified  them  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.  Therefore 
they  are  before  the  throne  of  God  and  serve  him  day  and  night  in 
his  temple.  And  he  who  sits  on  the  throne  shall  dwell  in  a  tent 
among  them.  They  shall  not  hunger  any  more,  nor  thirst  any  more, 
neither  can  the  sun  strike  them,  nor  any  heat,  because  the  Lamb  who 
is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  shall  guide  them,  and  shall  lead  them 
unto  the  fountains  of  the  waters  of  life,  and  God  shall  wipe  every 
tear  from  their  eyes. 

The  scene  of  this  vision  is  the  divine  presence.  The  innu- 
merable multitude  stand  before  the  throne  of  God  and  the  Lamb, 
and  are  doubtless  living  believers  changed  to  immortal,  publicly 
accepted  and  exalted  to  the  station  of  heirs  of  God  and  joint  heirs 
with  Christ  in  his  kingdom.  They  are  clothed  in  white  robes, 
which  denotes  their  justification.  They  have  palm  branches  in 
their  hands,  which  are  the  emblems  of  joy  on  account  of  victory. 
They  ascribe  their  salvation  to  God  and  to  the  Lamb,  which  indi- 
cates that  it  is  accomplished.  They  are  come  out  of  the  great  tribu- 
lation, that  is  immediately  to  precede  Christ's  coming,  which  shoAVs 
that  they  are  to  be  in  life  when  that  trial  begins ;  and  as  they  are 
to  be  active  in  coming  out  of  it,  that  they  come  out  of  it  in  life. 
Their  warfare  therefore  is  closed.  Their  justification  also,  like 
their  sanctification,  is  completed.  They  have  washed  their  robes 
and  cleansed  them  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  are  to  need, 
therefore,  no  further  forgiveness,  as  they  are  no  more  to  be  stain- 
ed by  offences.  Accordingly  their  redemption  being  completed, 
thev  are  exalted  to  stations  in  the  presence  of  God,  and  the  hon- 
ors and  joys  of  an  eternal  service  in  his  temple.  He  that  sits  on 
the  throne  is  to  dwell  in  a  tent  among  them.  They  are  never 
more  to  know  want  in  any  form,  suffering,  sorrow,  or  any  of  the 
necessities  that  are  incident  to  this  life  ;  but  the  Lamb  is  to  guide 
them  like  a  shepherd,  and  lead  them  to  fountains  of  the  waters 
of  life.  This  description  obviously  embodies  all  that  is  embraced 


THE   MULTITUDE    IN    WHITE   ROBES.  181 

in  the  delineation  given  cbap.  xxi.  3,  4,  of  the  state  of  those  who 
are  to  be  freed  from  mortality  at  the  descent  of  God  to  the  earth 
to  dwell  with  men.  "  And  I  heard  a  loud  voice  from  heaven, 
saying ;  Behold  the  tabernacle  of  God  with  men  !  and  he  shall 
dwelfin  a  tent  with  them ;  and  they  shall  be  his  people,  and  God 
himself  shall  be  with  them,  their  God.  And  God  shall  wipe 
every  tear  from  their  eyes :  and  death  shall  be  no  more,  nor  shall 
sorrow,  nor  crying,  nor  toil  be  any  more ;  for  the  former  things 
are  passed  away."  These  men  with  whom 'God  is  thus  to  dwell 
on  the  earth,  are  not  risen  and  glorified  saints  ;  since  if  they  were, 
they  would  be  the  same  as  those  who  are  symbolized  by  the 
New  Jerusalem,  Yet  they  are  not  mortal ;  as  there  is  to  be  no 
more  death.  They  have  been  changed  therefore  from  mortal, 
to  immortal,  according  to  the  prediction  1  Cor.  xv.  52-54. 
And  how  glorious  the  change !  How  intimate  the  relations  to 
Christ  to  which  they  are  exalted !  What  an  elevation  of  na- 
ture it  implies,  Avhat  a  grandeur  of  intelligence,  what  a  spot- 
lessness  and  beauty  of  affection!  How  vast  and  majestic  a 
change  from  the  weaknesses,  the  sins,  the  conflicts,  the  miseries 
that  iDcfore  marked  their  existence,  the  agonies  of  death,  and 
the  darkness  and  ruin  of  the  grave  to  which  they  were  doomed 
because  of  their  offences  !  And  in  what  harmony  with  this  is  the 
homage  of  the  angeHc  hosts,  who  witness  their  acceptance,  who 
behold  the  honors  with  which  they  are  crowned,  who  are  aware 
of  the  dignity  of  the  offices  they  are  to  fill,  who  know  the  suita- 
bleness of  their  elevation  to  such  a  grandeur  of  nature  and  rank, 
that  the  beauty  and  greatness  of  their  salvation  may  be  worthy 
of  the  might  and  wisdom  and  love  of  the  Redeemer,  and  justify 
the  depth  of  humiliation  to  which  he  stooped  to  achieve  it !  They 
bend  in  prostrate  homage  and  ascribe  to  him  the  blessing,  and 
the  glory,  and  the  wisdom,  and  the  thanks,  and  the  honor,  and  the 
dominion,  and  the  might,  forever  and  ever;  which  implies  that  the 
redemption  of  the  innumerable  multitude  is  finished,  and  indi- 
cates their  understanding  of  its  nature,  their  sense  of  its  infinite 
greatness  and  beauty,  and  their  feeling  that  it  is  to  give  birth  to 
wonder,  adoration,  and  joy  throughout  eternal  ages.  No  earlier 
epoch  in  the  progress  of  their  redemption,  no  lower  conception 
of  the  scene,  accords  with  these  representations. 

The  homage  of  the  angelic  hosts  bespeaks  an  acquaintance  not 
only  with  the  general  characteristics  of  the  work  of  redemption, 
but  with  the  particulars  also  of  the  salvation  of  the  innumerable 
multitude.  The  ascription  to  God  of  the  glory  of  their  salva- 
tion, is  as  appropriate  in  respect  to  them  as  individuals,  as  it  is 
as  a  body.     It  implies  therefore  that  a  revision  of  their  lives  had 


182  THE    MULTITUDE    IN    WHITE    ROBES. 

taken  place,  in  a  public  judgment  in  the  presence  of  the  angels, 
and  manifestation  of  the  gracious  agencies  by  which  God  accom- 
plished their  sanctification,  and  raised  them  to  a  meetness  for  his 
kingdom.  It  is  not  easy  to  conceive  how  otherwise  each  angel 
could  have  so  perfect  a  knowledge  of  the  history  of  each  indi- 
vidual, as  to  authorize  and  give  significance  to  so  specific  a  judg- 
ment as  they  express.  It  is  not  credible  that  any  created  intelli- 
gence, however  great,  is  adequate  by  virtue  of  his  own  faculties, 
to  eye  through  every  moment  all  the  children  of  God  who  live 
cotemporaneously,  discern  all  their  conditions,  all  the  influences 
that  affect  them,  all  their  perceptions,  emotions,  and  volitions, 
and  form  a  perfect  estimate  of  their  dangers,  imperfections,  and 
sins,  on  the  one  hand,  and  their  virtue  on  the  other.  The  per- 
ception of  such  an  infinite  complication  of  natures,  agents, 
causes,  influences,  and  effects,  would  involve  the  powers  of  om- 
niscience. Their  knowledge  therefore  must  be  acquired  by  a 
public  revision  of  the  divine  administration  over  the  redeemed, 
and  revelation  in  that  manner  of  all  the  events  of  their  lives,  and 
all  the  secrets  of  God's  agency  :  and  the  ascription  of  the  angels 
is  an  expression  of  the  conviction  to  which  that  manifestation 
carried  them.  It  indicates  accordingly,  with  an  awful  emphasis, 
that  the  great  truth  which  is  disclosed  and  demonstrated  in  the 
sanctification  of  men  up  to  that  period,  is  that  their  salvation  is 
wholly  the  work  of  God  ;  that  were  it  not  for  the  sovereign  and 
almighty  aids  of  his  Spirit,  and  the  special  care  of  his  provi- 
dence, not  an  individual  unrenewed  or  renewed  would  ever  ad- 
vance a  step  in  preparation  for  his  kingdom  :  and  it  is  the  demon- 
stration in  so  many  forms,  and  on  so  vast  a  scale  doubtless  of 
that  truth,  and  the  verification  thereby  of  all  the  grounds  re- 
specting the  alienation  of  men  on  which  the  work  of  redemption 
proceeds,  that  is  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  dispensation  that  is 
to  follow,  under  which,  through  a  long  succession  of  ages,  the 
whole  race  is  to  be  sanctified. 

Commentators  vary  equally  in  their  expositions  of  this  vis- 
ion ;  those  who  refer  the  former  to  the  early  ages,  interpreting 
this  also  of  the  church  on  earth  and  of  the  same  times.  Thus 
Grolius,  Eichhorn,  and  Rosenmuller,  who  regard  the  other  as 
representing  the  preservation  of  the  Jewish  Christians,  exhibit 
this  as  symbolizing  the  purity,  preservation,  and  happiness  of  the 
numerous  Gentile  converts  of  the  same  period.  But  that  is  to 
disregard  the  representation  that  they  were  in  the  divine  pres- 
ence, not  on  earth  ;  that  they  were  come  out  of  the  great  tribu- 
lation, not  that  they  were  approaching  the  first  of  the  long  series 


THE    MULTITUDE    IN    WHITE    ROBES.  183 

of  persecutions  which  began  with  Nero  ;  that  their  salvation  was 
completed  ;  that  they  were  no  more  to  suffer  want  or  sorrow  ;  and 
that  they  were  to  dwell  forever  in  the  presence  of  the  Lamb 
Their  exposition  indeed  completely  reverses  the  symbol.  The 
temple  in  heaven  is  not  the  emblem,  but  the  antitype  of  the  tem- 
ple on  earth.  It  was  after  the  pattern  of  the  heavenly,  that  the 
tabernacle  was  formed — Hebrews  viii.  5,  ix.  23,  24 ;  the  holy 
of  holies  representing  the  temple  above,  and  the  entrance  into  it 
of  the  high  priest,  the  ascent  of  the  Redeemer  to  that  higher  sanc- 
tuary. When  the  redeemed  accordingly  are  exhibited  as  admit- 
ted to  reside  in  his  presence,  he  is  said  as  in  this  passage  to  dwell 
in  a  tent  with  them,  and  they  are  represented  as  serving  him  in 
his  temple ;  and  when  the  church  above  is  exhibited  as  return- 
ing again  to  reside  below,  it  is  under  the  symbol  of  the  New 
Jerusalem  in  which  God  dwells,  descending  from  heaven  to 
earth. 

Mr.  Daubuz  refers  it,  like  the  sealing,  to  the  reign  of  Constan- 
tine,  and  regards  it  as  denoting  the  release  of  the  church  by  that 
emperor  from  persecution,  its  legalization,  its  intimate  association 
with  the  government,  and  patronage  by  the  erection  of  edifices 
for  its  worship,  the  grant  to  it  of  revenues,  and  the  gift  to  its 
members  of  civil  offices.  That,  however,  is  in  like  manner  to 
reverse  the  meaning  of  the  symbols,  and  contradict  the  language 
of  the  vision.  It  is  to  make  heaven  the  representative  of  earth, 
and  the  heavenly  temple  the  type  instead  of  the  antitype  of  the 
temple  below.  It  is  to  symbolize  a  release  from  one  species  of 
trials  by  deliverance  from  all,  and  the  gift  of  temporal  and  world- 
ly advantages  by  the  honors  and  enjoymentsofeternallife,— which 
is  the  converse  of  analogy.  But,  beyond  the  grant  of  toleration, 
the  changes  wrought  in  the  condition  of  the  church  by  Constan- 
tine,  instead  of  honorable  and  salutary,  were  degrading  and  per- 
nicious in  the  extreme.  His  legalization  of  it  and  patronage, 
were  founded  on  the  assumption  of  the  right  of  dominion  over  its 
doctrines,  worship,  ministers,  and  government,  and  was  an  impi- 
ous usurpation  therefore  of  the  prerogatives  of  God.  It  was,  in 
truth,  an  adoption  of  it  by  the  dragon,  and  subordination  of  its 
faith,  worship,  and  ministers  to  the  sway  of  that  monster  ;  and 
the  church,  in  assenting  to  it,  sanctioned  that  usurpation,  and  so 
far  transferred  its  homage  from  God  to  that  antagonist  power. 
That  assumption  of  the  divine  right  is  accordingly  represented 
in  a  subsequent  vision,  by  the  violent  elevation  of  the  man-child 
to  the  throne  of  the  Almighty,  and  its  disastrous  influence  on  the 
church  shown  by  the  flight  of  the  woman  into  the  desert.     No 


184  THE    MULTITUDE    IN    WHITE    ROBES.  * 

more  unfortunate  mistake  therefore  could  be  made  than  to  ex- 
hibit such  an  apostasy  from  God  to  the  dragon,  as  the  fulfilment 
of  the  vision  representing  the  innumerable  multitude  of  the  re- 
deemed of  all  nations  and  ages,  changed  to  immortal,  presented 
by  the  Son  in  the  presence  of  the  Father,  justified,  adopted,  ad- 
judged on  his  account  to  everlasting  life,  and  testifying  their 
gratitude  by  ascribing  to  him  their  salvation. 

Bishop  Newton  interprets  it  of  the  large  accessions  to  the 
church  during  the  reigns  of  Constantine  and  his  successors  to 
Theodosius  ;  Mr.  Brightman  of  the  multitudes  of  true  believers 
added  after  the  thirteenth  century,  and  finally  of  the  conversion 
of  the  Jews.  But  their  constructions  also  reverse  the  symboli- 
zation,  and  make  this  instead  of  the  new  earth  the  scene,  and  the 
sinning,  the  suffering,  and  mortal,  the  subjects,  instead  of  those 
who  are  ehanged  from  mortal  to  immortality. 

Mr,  Lovvman  regards  the  multitude  as  the  spirits  of  the  re- 
deemed in  heaven.  But  that  is  to  exhibit  their  bodies  as  still 
under  the  sentence  of  death,  and  their  redemption  therefore  as 
incomplete,  Vitringa  interprets  it  of  the  prosperous  state  of  the 
church  in  this  world  that  is  to  follow  the  overthrow  of  Antichrist, 
which  is  again  to  contradict  analogy,  and  make  the  old  earth  the 
representative  of  the  new.  Mr.  Cuuinghame  regards  the  mul- 
titude as  a  portion  of  the  church  of  the  same  period  as  the  sealed, 
but  of  inferior  fidelity,  and  on  that  account  to  be  left  to  severe 
trial,  at  the  loosing  of  the  four  winds,  but  at  length  with  per- 
haps others  converted  from  heathenism,  to  obtain  deliverance : 
Mr,  Elliott,  as  the  scaled  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  final  happiness 
in  heaven :  Dean  Woodhouse,  as  the  whole  body  of  the  redeemed 
living  as  well  as  dead,  raised  to  the  divine  presence  in  heaven,  or 
if  on  earth,  subsequently  to  a  regeneration  of  the  present  globe; 
variations  from  the  exposition  I  have  given  on  which  I  need  not 
dwell.  The  period  represented  by  the  vision,  I  regard  as  to 
follow  the  first  resurrection  and  tlie  descent  of  the  new  Jerusa- 
lem ; — the  act,  the  presentation  by  the  Saviour  of  the  living 
saints,  changed  from  mortal  to  immortality,  to  the  Father,  their 
public  justification  in  the  presence  of  the  angelic  hosts,  adoption 
as  his  sons,  and  welcome  to  the  honors  and  joys  of  serving  in  the 
immediate  presence  of  the  Lamb  in  his  millennial  reign. 

We  are  thus  furnished  by  the  law  of  analogy  Avith  a  consistent, 
satisfirctory,  and  easy  solution  of  the  first  six  seals.  Tlie  great 
actors  and  events  which  they  foreshadow,  are  found,  as  i'av  as 
they  are  already  in  existence,  graven  in  the  utmost  distinctness 
on  the  page  of  history ;   and  of  a  significance  that  corresponds 


THE  MULTITUDE  IN  WHITE  ROBES.  185 

to  the  beauty  or  awfulness  of  the  symbols  by  which  they  are- 
represented,  and  the  infinite  interests  they  affect.  No  forced 
constructions  are  requisite  ;  no  deviations  from  an  obvious  and 
invariable  law.  They  present  a  miniature  delineation  of  all  the 
great  characters  which  the  ministers  of  the  church  have  assumed 
from  age  to  age,  and  the  changes  they  have  wrought  in  its  dispo- 
sitions, its  faith,  and  its  worship.  They  conduct  us  into  the  in- 
visible world,  and  disclose  to  us  the  acceptance,  the  glory,  and 
blessedness  during  their  intermediate  existence,  of  those  who 
have  fallen  asleep  in  Jesus.  They  lift  the  veil  from  the  future, 
and  exhibit  the  approaching  separation  of  the  servants  of  God 
from  the  apostate  church,  and  renunciation  of  the  usurped  do- 
minion of  the  wild  beast,  and  the  whirlwind  commotions  that  are 
thence  to  spring  and  sweep  to  destruction  the  towering  fabrics 
of  antichristian  rule  ;  and  finally,  they  display  to  us  tiie  innu- 
merable host  of  the  living  saints,  changed  to  immortal,  pre- 
sented by  the  Redeemer  to  the  Father,  and  accepted,  adopted, 
and  assigned  to  stations  and  services  in  his  presence  through  his 
millennial  reign.  And  what  a  demonstration  they  form  of  the 
omniscience  of  their  Author  !  What  a  vast  succession  of  agents, 
in  what  new  combinations,  and  of  what  unusual  characters  they 
foreshow  !  What  an  infinite  complication  of  extraordinary  and 
unexampled  events,  beautiful  and  awful,  fraught  with  boundless 
blessings  to  men,  and  with  immeasurable  evils,  and  that  are  to 
extend  their  influence  through  interminable  ages  !  Who  but  he 
who  creates,  and  who  rules  all,  could  have  drawn  a  single  line 
of  such  a  portraiture  ?  Who  but  the  All-beholding  could  have 
traced  in  so  brief  a  space,  so  perfect  an  image  of  the  great  ac- 
tors and  actions  of  so  many  ages  ? 

This  solution  of  the  seals  is  important  also  in  its  relations  to 
the  visions  which  immediately  follow  ;  as  it  makes  it  apparent 
from  their  nature  that  they  relate  to  periods  far  earlier  than  sev- 
eral of  the  later  seals,  and  that  a  formal  notice  of  the  commence- 
ment of  a  new  series  of  disclosures  was  unnecessary. 

24 


186  THE  SEVENTH  SEAL. 


SECTION  XVI. 

CHAPTER   VIII.  1-5. 

THE  SEVENTH  SEAL. 

And  when  he  opened  the  seventh  seal,  there  was  silence  in  heav- 
en, as  it  were  a  half  hour.  And  I  saw  the  seven  angels  who  stood 
before  God,  and  seven  trumpets  were  given  to  them.  And  another 
angel  came  and  stood  at  the  altar  having  a  golden  censer.  And 
much  incense  was  given  to  him  that  he  should  offer  with  the  prayers 
of  all  the  saints  on  the  golden  altar  which  was  before  the  throne. 
And  the  smoke  of  the  incense  ascended  with  the  prayers  of  the 
saints  from  the  angel's  hand  before  God.  And  the  angel  took  the 
censer,  and  filled  it  from  the  fire  of  the  altar,  and  cast  to  the  earth. 
And  there  were  voices,  and  thunders,  and  lightnings,  and  an  earth- 
quake. 

The  heaven,  of  which  the  half  hour's  silence  is  affirmed,  was 
doubtless  the  heaven  of  the  divine  presence,  not  the  earth's  at- 
mosphere. The  silence  was  symbolic,  as  well  as  the  agents  and 
acts  that  followed  at  the  altar,  and  the  phenomena  of  the  distant 
spectacle.  It  was  a  period  of  thoughtfulness,  awe,  and  expect- 
ancy ;  and  denotes  doubtless  that  ere  the  great  judgments  about 
to  be  symbolized,  were  to  be  inflicted,  the  redeemed  in  heaven 
and  angelic  hosts  were  to  be  called  by  contemplation,  submis- 
sion, and  faith,  to  a  preparation  for  the  displays  of  justice  which 
they  were  to  witness.  It  implies  also  that  during  a  short  period, 
no  new  agents  were  to  go  forth  to  work  important  changes  in  the 
world,  and  thence  that  there  should  be  a  brief  space  of  tranquil- 
lity, compared  with  that  which  had  preceded  and  was  to  follow, 
and  a  space  marked  in  a  pre-eminent  degree  by  fervent  supplica- 
tions by  the  church  for  deliverance  from  the  power  of  a  persecu- 
tino-  government.  The  period  on  eartli  corresponding  to  that 
silence,  probably,  from  the  symbolizations  that  follow,  was  that 
of  repose  which  intervened  between  the  close  of  llie  persecution 
by  Diocletian  and  Galerius  in  April  of  the  year  311,  and  the 
commencement  near  the  close  of  that  year,  of  the  civil  wars  by 
which  Constantino  the  Great  was  elevated  to  the  imperial  throne.' 

»  Lactantii  de  Mort.  Persecut.  c.  34,  35,  44.     Baronii  annal.  anno  311,  no.  34, 

an.  312,  no.  7.     Fagi  Crit.  in  annal.  Baron,  anno  311,  no.  14,  15,  anno  312,  no.3. 

Constantius  Chlorus  was  declared  Ctesar  in  the  year  292.     The  persecution  by 


THE  SEVENTH  SEAL.  187 

The  period  from  the  persecution  by  Diocletian  to  that  by  Licinius 
commenced  in  319,  was  marked  by  impassioned  desires  and  hopes 
by  the  church,  for  the  elevation  to  power,  not  only  of  a  tolerant, 
but  of  a  Christian  prince,  who  should  free  it  from  the  danger  of 
extinction,  with  which  the  repetition  of  an  exterminating  war  like 
that  of  Diocletian  and  Galerius  seemed  to  threaten  it.'  That 
period  answers  to  the  other  conditions  of  the  symbol  also.  It 
immediately  preceded  a  violent  convulsion  in  the  Roman  empire 
in  which  the  church  had  a  deeper  interest  than  in  any  other  that 
has  occurred,  and  in  which  there  was  a  tempestuous  conflict  of 
opinion,  such  as  voices,  lightnings,  and  thunders  denote,  and  a 
subversion  of  ancient  institutions,  analogous  to  the  demolition  of 
fortresses,  temples,  and  cities,  by  an  earthquake.  That  revolu- 
tion also  was  followed  by  a  long  succession  of  great  and  pecu- 
liar events  answering  to  the  symbols  of  the  trumpets,  and  to  extend 
like  the  seals  to  the  advent  of  the  Redeemer.  From  the  fifth 
of  those  symbols,  it  is  apparent  that  the  church  had,  at  the  pe- 
riod which  it  represents,  apostatized.  The  men  who  were  to  be 
tormented  by  its  scorpion  locusts,  were  they  who  had  not  the 
seal  of  God  on  their  foreheads,  which,  as  we  have  learned  from 
the  vision  of  the  seventh  chapter,  marks  his  true  worshippers, 
and  makes  them  visible  as  such,  in  contradistinction  from  apos- 
tates. As  the  first  four  trumpets  preceded  the  fifth,  and  the  fifth 
indisputably  commenced  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventh  century, 
we  are  constrained,  by  the  inadequacy  of  all  other  events,  to 
refer  the  first  four  to  the  subversion  of  the  western  Roman  em- 
pire by  the  Goths  ;  and  thence,  as  no  others  of  that  nature  pre- 
ceded them,  to  regard  the  voices,  lightnings,  thunders,  and  earth- 
quake, as  symbols  of  the  agitations,  contests,  and  revolutions, 
which  attended  the  elevation  of  Constantino  and  subversion  of 
paganism,  and  extending  therefore  from  the  commencement  of 
his  war  with  Maxentius,  in  the  year  311,  to  the  death  of  Theo- 
dosius  in  395.  This  is  confirmed  also  by  the  resemblance  of 
this  vision  to  that  of  the  twelfth  chapter,  in  which  the  church  is 
exhibited  under  the  symbol  of  a  majestic  woman,  desiring  to  give 
birth  to  a  man-child  who  should  rule  the  nations  with  an  iron 

Diocletian  and  Galerius  commenced  in  March,  303  :  Constanliiis  Chlorus  became 
Augustus  in  305,  and  died  in  300,  when  Constantine  succeeded  him,  with  the  rank, 
however,  of  Csesar  only  Galerius  yielded  toleration  to  the  cluircli  in  April,  311, 
and  died  in  the  May  following.  The  war  between  Constantino  and  Maxentius 
commenced  towards  the  close  of  311,  and  ended  in  the  defeat  and  death  of  Max- 
entius 28lh  October,  312. 

'  Lactantii  de  Mort.  Persecut.  c.  i.     Eusebii  de  Vita  Constant.  lib.  ii.  c.l,  2,    3, 
4.     Sozomeni  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  i.  c.  7. 


188  THE   SEVENTH  SEAL. 

sceptre.  Those  desires  and  cries  were  of  the  period  between 
the  elevation  and  death  of  Constantius  Clilorus.  They  were  fol- 
lowed like  these  by  the  fall  of  the  votaries  of  paganism  into  a 
minority  in  the  empire,  by  an  apostasy  of  the  church,  and  by  the 
flight  of  the  woman  into  the  desert.  That  man-child  indisputably 
represented  Constantino  and  his  successors,  with  the  exception 
of  Julian.  They  in  claiming  dominion  over  the  faith  and  wor- 
ship of  the  church,  usurped  the  throne  of  God,  and  led  to  an 
apostasy.  The  fall  of  the  pagan  party  took  place  during  their 
reigns,  and  was  immediately  followed  by  the  incursions  of  the 
Goths,  which  the  symbols  of  the  first  four  trumpets  denote. 
These  and  the  immense  train  of  correspondences  of  the  suc- 
cessive trumpets  extending  through  fifteen  centuries,  and  which 
are  found  in  no  degree  in  any  other  events,  furnish  a  vast  and 
irresistible  demonstration  that  the  period  of  tranquillity  imme- 
diately before  their  commencement,  is  that  which  the  silence 
denotes.  To  find  any  other  train  of  agents  and  agencies  that  ac- 
cord with  these  symbols,  is  as  impossible,  as  it  is  to  find  any 
other  empire  than  the  Roman  that  answers  to  their  scene,  or  any 
other  department  of  life  than  the  civil  and  military  in  that  em- 
pire, to  which  those  actors  can  have  belonged. 

That  the  seven  angels — though  they  appear  immediately  after 
the  silence,  and  receive  their  trumpets — do  not  enter  on  their 
office  until  the  prayers  of  the  saints  have  been  offered  and  an- 
swered by  a  tempest  and  earthquake  in  the  empire,  denotes  that 
the  events  that  were  to  be  symbolized  in  connection  with  their 
agency,  could  not  take  place  until  those  supplications  had  re- 
ceived an  answer,  and  were  to  follow  in  some  relation  as  conse- 
quences of  them. 

And  another  angel  came  and  stood  at  the  altar  of  sacrifice, 
which  was  in  the  court  immediately  before  the  vestibule  of  the 
temple,  and  on  which  the  fire  was  never  extinguished,^  having  a 
golden  censer  with  which  to  take  coals  from  the  altar.  While 
in  that  station  an  attendant  gave  to  him  much  incense,  that  he 
should  offer  with  the  prayers  of  all  the  saints  on  the  golden  altar 
in  the  sanctuary  or  main  temple,  immediately  before  the  entrance 
to  the  holy  of  holies.  Receiving  the  incense  and  fiUing  the  cen- 
ser with  coals,^  he  proceeded  into  the  sanctuary,  and  firing  the 
incense  on  the  golden  altar,  the  smoke  ascended  before  the  holy 
of  holies,  in  which  was  the  throne  of  the  Almighty.  Then  re- 
turning to  the  altar  of  sacrifice  in  the  court,  he  filled  the  censer 
again  with  coals,  and  cast  to  the  earth,  and  there  were  voices,  and 

'  Leviticus  vi.  12,  13.  '  Levit.  xvi.  12,  13.    Luke  i.  9,  10. 


THE  SEVENTH  SEAL.  189 

thunders,  and  lightnings,  and  an  earthquake.  This  action  is  ob- 
viously symbolic  of  an  agency,  not  on  earth,  but  in  heaven.  To 
suppose  that  the  angel  offering  incense  personates  agents  on 
earth,  is  to  suppose  tiie  throne  also  to  be  on  earth,  and  the  being 
who  sat  on  it,  which  is  not  only  to  contradict  the  vision,  but  as 
there  is  no  visible  being  enthroned  in  the  church  on  earth  but  the 
pope,  and  none  but  he  to  whom  homage  is  paid,  it  is  to  imply 
that  it  is  he  who  is  symbolized  in  the  vision  as  the  object  of  wor- 
ship, which  is  the  most  revolting  of  errors.  As  the  throne  then 
was  in  heaven,  and  he  who  sat  on  it  the  eternal  Word,  so  the 
angel  offering  the  incense  symbolized  an  agent  in  his  presence, 
not  on  earth,  and  the  offering  of  the  incense  an  act  exerted  in  his 
presence,  not  in  our  world.  It  denoted  therefore  that  there  was 
to  be  a  visible  recognition  in  the  presence  of  the  Redeemer  of 
the  supplications  of  the  church  on  earth,  by  a  memorial  or  repre- 
sentative, symbolized  by  the  offering  of  incense.  The  angel  per- 
sonated the  order  of  beings  who  filled  that  ofhce.  As  the  fire 
of  the  altar  is  the  symbol  of  the  instruments  of  divine  justice, 
the  angel's  filling  his  censer  with  coals  from  the  altar,  after  his 
return  from  the  sanctuary,  and  casting  them  to  the  earth,  denoted 
that  the  prayers  of  the  church  were  to  be  answered  by  avenging 
justice ;  and  the  voices,  lightnings,  thunders,  and  earthquake 
that  followed,  that  that  justice  was  to  be  inflicted  in  a  succession 
of  violent  commotions  in  the  empire,  in  which  the  visible  church 
was  to  have  an  immediate  interest. 

Eichhorn  and  Rosenmuller  regard  the  silence  as  introduced 
by  the  apostle,  merely  in  order  to  the  adjustment  of  the  dramatic 
action,  and  without  signification  therefore.  But  that  is  to  set 
aside  the  symbolic  character  of  the  scene.  Grotius  interprets  the 
voices,  lightnings,  thunders,  and  earthquake,  as  symbols  of 
similar  phenomena  that  preceded  and  heralded  the  calamities 
of  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  and  that  were  themselves  presages 
of  those  calamities  ;  which  is  in  the  first  place  to  exhibit  them 
as  of  the  same  species  as  the  events  they  represented,  and  next 
to  make  them  representatives  of  representatives,  which  are  alike 
against  the  laws  of  symbolization. 

The  commentators  who  interpret  the  sixth  seal  of  events  of  the 
reigi^  of  Constantine,  refer  this  vision  to  his  reign  also,  or  the 
period  from  his  victory  over  Licinius  to  the  commencement  of 
the  Gothic  invasions,  but  differ  widely  in  their  views  of  its  im- 
port. Mr.  Brightman  regards  Constantine  as  the  angel  offering 
incense,  the  odors  his  power  of  assembling  a  council  to  settle 
the  dissensions  of  the  church,  the  smoke  of  the  incense  the  ac- 


190  THE    SEVENTH    SEAL. 

tion  of  the  council,  and  the  voices,  thunders,  and  earthquake,  the 
contentions  to  which  the  decisions  of  the  council  gave  birth ; 
incongruities,  were  they  not  the  offspring  of  a  misconception  of 
the  law  of  symbolizalion  that  is  common  to  later  interpreters,  it 
would  scarcely  be  necessary  to  refute.  They  are  against  anal- 
ogy. The  ritual  of  the  temple  is  a  fit  type  of  the  spiritual  wor- 
ship of  the  Christian  church,  but  there  is  no  analogy  between 
that  ritual  and  the  usurpation  of  authority  over  the  church  by  a 
civil  ruler,  and  attempt  to  dictate  its  faith  and  worship.  There 
is  an  obvious  resemblance  between  an  earthquake  which  heaves 
the  massiest  structures  from  their  foundations  and  prostrates 
whole  cities,  and  a  political  revolution  in  which  ancient  institu- 
tions are  undermined  and  overthrown ;  but  there  is  no  resem- 
blance between  such  a  convulsion  which  strows  the  earth  with 
ruin,  and  the  differences  and  dissatisfactions  of  a  church  in  re- 
spect to  the  decrees  of  a  council. 

Mr.  Daubuz  regards  the  silence  as  a  symbol  of  the  liberty 
granted  to  the  church  by  Constantino  to  worship  without  ob- 
struction ;  the  gift  of  incense  to  the  angel,  whom  he  exhibits  as 
a  representative  of  the  ministers  of  the  church,  as  the  gift  of 
revenues  for  the  erection  of  edifices  for  worship  and  the  support 
of  ministers  ;  the  voices,  thunders,  and  lightnings,  as  their  public 
and  zealous  proclamation  of  the  word  of  God.  But  what  anal- 
ogy is  there  between  silence  and  a  liberty  to  offer  an  audible 
worship  ;  between  the  gift  of  incense,  the  symbol  of  acceptable 
supplication,  and  the  gift  of  revenues  to  build  magnificent  struc- 
tures and  support  ministers,  without  any  reference  to  the  nature 
of  the  worship  to  which  those  structures  were  to  be  devoted,  or 
tiie  doctrines  those  ministers  were  to  teach  ;  between  the  light- 
nings and  thunders  of  a  tempest,  and  the  proclamation  to  men 
of  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation  ? 

Cocceius  regards  the  angel  as  Christ,  the  golden  censer  as 
the  will  of  the  Eternal  Spirit  through  which  he  offered  himself 
a  sacrifice  for  us  ;  the  altar  as  denoting  the  dignity  of  his  deity, 
and  the  incense  his  merits  ;  the  fire  from  the  altar  as  a  symbol  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  its  dejection  to  the  earth  as  denoting  an  ef- 
fusion of  his  influences  and  distribution  of  gracious  gifts  ;  all 
which  are  wholly  against  analogy. 

Vitringa  interprets  the  silence  of  the  millennium  of  peace 
which  is  to  follow  the  overthrow  of  the  wild  beast  and  false 
prophet,  and  the  angel  offering  incense  of  Christ.  But  what 
analogy  is  there  between  a  half  hour  of  silence,  and  a  thousand 
years  of  perpetual  homage,  activity  in  the  service  of  God,  and 


THE    SEVENTH    SEAL.  191 

joy  ;  or  between  a  half  hour  followed  by  trumpets,  vials,  the 
destruction  of  a  wild  beast  and  false  prophet,  and  thence  a 
thousand  years  of  righteousness  and  peace  ;  and  a  thousand 
years  of  righteousness  succeeded  by  no  such  trumpets  or  vials, 
wild  beast  or  false  prophet  ?  What  analogy  is  there  between 
heaven  and  earth,  that  the  one  can  symbolize  the  other  ;  or  what 
resemblance  between  an  angel  who  offers  homage  in  the  pres- 
ence of  Christ,  and  Christ  in  whose  presence  that  homage  is  of- 
fered ?  Created  agents  are  never  employed  to  symbolize  the 
Redeemer,  either  in  person  or  office. 

Dean  Woodhouse  and  Mr.  Cuninghame  regard  the  silence  as 
indicating  the  termination  of  that  series  of  events  which  the  for- 
mer seals  denote,  and  the  commencement  of  a  new  train  of 
revelations.  But  what  adaptation  has  a  half  hour's  silence  to 
show  that  the  series  of  symbols  that  follow  it,  commence  at  a 
period  many  ages  earlier  than  that  at  which  the  preceding  series 
closed  ?  If  it  be  a  representative  of  time,  it  undoubtedly  repre- 
sents a  period  that  intervenes  between  the  two  series,  not  that,  or 
a  chief  part  of  that,  which  the  preceding  series  had  measured. 
But  it  is  the  half  hour  that  indicates  the  time,  while  the  silence 
is  a  symbol  of  its  characteristic,  and  in  distinction  doubtless 
from  that  which  preceded  and  followed. 

Mr.  Elliott  interprets  the  silence  of  the  suspension  of  the 
winds  during  the  sealing  of  the  servants  of  God.  But  what 
certainty  can  there  be  of  interpretation,  if  events  may  in  that 
manner  be  transferred  from  one  seal  to  another  to  meet  the  exi- 
gences of  a  theory  ?  The  philology  on  which  he  founds  that 
transference,  is  as  unsatisfactory  as  the  construction  he  employs 
it  to  support.  If  the  aorist  in  the  first  verse  be  used  as  the  plu- 
perfect, it  must  be  held  to  be  used  in  place  of  that  tense  also  in 
all  the  other  instances  in  which  it  occurs  both  in  this  passage 
and  those  that  follow,  and  will  exhibit  the  voices,  and  thunders, 
and  earthquake,  therefore,  as  well  as  the  silence,  as  preceding 
the  opening  of  the  seal,  and  the  hail  and  fire  that  follow  the  first 
trumpet,  as  having  preceded  that  trumpet.  There  is  no  more 
infallible  mark  of  the  error  of  an  interpretation,  than  that  it  is 
built  on  a  deviation  from  the  most  simple  and  uniform  laws  of 
language.  The  meaning  is  invariably  that  which  those  laws, 
most  fully  understood  and  implicitly  followed,  constrain  us  to 
adopt.  It  is  equally  against  analogy.  What  resemblance  is 
there  between  silence,  and  a  suspension  of  tempestuous  winds  ? 
A  deep  calm  is  more  favorable  to  the  transmission  of  sound, 
than  any  other  condition  of  the  atmosphere.     Mr.  Cuninghame 


192  THE  FIRST  TRUMPET. 

interprets  the  voices,  lightnings,  and  earthquake,  of  the  political 
convulsions  and  revolutions  by  which  paganism  was  overthrown 
and  Christianity  adopted  as  the  religion  of  the  state,  but  regards 
them  as  consummated  during  the  reign  of  Constanline. 


SECTION  XVII. 

CHAPTER   VIII.   6,7. 

THE    FIRST    TRUMPET. 


And  the  seven  angels  who  held  the  seven  trumpets  prepared 
themselves  that  they  might  sound.  And  the  first  sounded.  And 
there  were  hail  and  fire  mingled  with  blood,  and  they  were  cast  to 
the  earth,  and  the  third  part  of  the  earth  was  burned,  and  the  third 
part  of  the  trees  was  burned,  and  all  green  grass  was  burned. 

The  angels'  preparation  of  themselves  that  they  might  sound, 
was  probably  a  removal  from  before  the  throne  to  a  distant  sta- 
tion, and  possibly  over  that  part  of  the  earth  which  was  to  be  the 
scene  of  their  respective  symbols.  The  sanctuary  to  which  the 
apostle  had  ascended  through  the  opened  heavens  was  doubtless 
immediately  over  Patmos,  and  at  a  vast  elevation,  whence,  as 
that  island  is  in  the  ^Egean  opposite  to  Miletus,  the  apocalyptic 
earth  was  visible. 

The  angels  are  not  to  be  considered  as  the  representatives  of 
the  agents  on  earth,  who  are  instrumental  in  giving  birth  to  the 
movements  which  their  several  symbols  denote.  There  is  no 
conceivable  analogy  between  the  blast  of  a  trumpet,  and  the  ex- 
citement of  a  whirlwind,  the  projection  of  a  volcanic  mountain 
into  the  sea,  or  any  of  the  other  events  which  their  symbols 
foreshadow.  Their  office,  therefore,  is  simply  like  that  of  the 
interpreting  angels  and  the  seals  of  the  book,  to  assist  in  con- 
ducting the  revelation,  distinguish  the  periods  of  the  several 
events,  and  exhibit  them  in  their  relation  to  God. 

As  neither  hail,  lightnings,  nor  rain  descend  to  the  earth  except 
from  clouds,  the  symbol  obviously  was  a  violent  storm,  in  which 
the  lightnings  instead  of  limited  flashes,  were  diffused  through 
the  whole  atmosphere.  They  were  equally  dispersed  with  the 
bloody  rain,  and  spread  devastation  wherever  the  tempest  fell. 

The  third  part  of  the  earth  denotes  a  third  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire, in  distinction  from  the  other  two-thirds,  not  a  third  of  what- 


THE  FIRST  TRUMPET.  193 

ever  was  destructible  by  fire  on  that  part  of  the  earth  where  the 
whirlwind  passed  ;  such  as  flocks,  herds,  dwellings,  cities,  uten- 
sils, and  other  works  of  art ;  as  is  seen  from  its  use  in  respect  to 
the  trees,  the  third  of  which  on  the  other  hand  denotes,  not  the 
trees  of  a  third  part  of  the  Roman  territory,  but  a  tliird  of  the 
trees  on  that  part  over  which  the  tempest  swept.  This  is  appa- 
rent from  the  destruction  of  all  grass  wherever  the  storm  fell, 
without  exception  of  places  or  parts.  If  it  had  extended  over 
the  whole  apocalyptic  scene,  the  discrimination  of  the  trees 
clearly  could  not  be  supposed  to  have  been  by  territories  ;  and 
as  their  survivance  could  not  have  been  owing  to  an  exemption 
from  the  tempest,  it  must  have  resulted  from  their  harder  nature, 
or  more  favorable  station.  That  is  equally  evident  also  in  re- 
spect to  that  portion  of  the  territory  over  which  the  whirlwind 
spread.  As  wherever  it  swept,  it  destroyed  all  green  grass,  it 
must  be  supposed  to  have  exerted  a  proportional  power  on  the 
trees.  It  is  the  ratio  therefore  of  the  destruction  of  the  trees  to 
the  destruction  of  the  grass,  which  the  term  is  in  this  instance 
employed  to  express,  not  the  proportion  of  the  region  over  which 
the  devastation  extended,  to  the  empire  at  large.  As  the  fire 
was  cast  to  the  earth  as  well  as  the  hail  and  rain,  and  must  there- 
fore have  covered  the  whole  surface  wherever  the  storm  raged, 
it  was  natural  that  a  growth  so  frail  as  green  grass,  should  be 
wholly  destroyed  by  a  heat  so  extreme  as  to  burn  one-third  of 
the  trees. 

What  now,  in  order  to  accord  with  the  symbol,  must  be  the 
characteristics  of  that  which  it  denotes  ?  It  must  be  a  mighty 
and  destructive  agent,  or  combination  of  agents.  It  must  de 
scend  on  the  apocalyptic  earth  from  without.  It  must  on  fulfil- 
ling its  office  in  a  degree  disappear,  or  mingle  itself  with  the  sur- 
rounding elements,  as  hail,  rain,  and  fire,  when  cast  to  the  earth, 
soon  enter  into  new  combinations,  or  assume  new  forms  of  ex- 
istence. It  must  belong  to  some  other  department  than  the  phy- 
sical world,  and  exert  its  agency  on  some  different  and  analogous 
class  of  objects.  There  is  no  counterpart  to  the  physical  world, 
but  the  intelligent,  and  but  two  forms  of  the  intelligent,  the  civil 
and  the  religious.  But  it  cannot  be  the  latter  to  which  the  agents 
whom  the  symbol  designates  belong.  No  combination  of  men 
employed  in  the  mere  propagation  of  religion,  or  acting  as  mere 
religionists,  intruded  into  the  Roman  empire  either  after  or  before 
the  reign  of  Constantino,  who  destroyed  one-third  of  those  enter- 
taining a  different  religious  belief  throughout  one-third,  or  any 
considerable  part  of  its  territory.     The  only  class  that  has  made 

25 


194  THE  FIRST  TRUMPET. 

destructive  incursions  into  the  empire  were  warriors,  and  when 
their  intrusions  carried  with  them  the  propagation  of  a  new  reh- 
gion,  it  was  only  subordinately  and  consequentially.  We  are 
led  then  from  the  want  of  any  corresponding  agents  in  the  reli- 
gious world,  to  the  civil  and  military  for  the  counterpart  of  the 
symbol,  and  find  a  most  exact  and  conspicuous  coincidence  with 
all  its  characters  in  the  Gothic  hordes,  who  intruded  into  the 
eastern  empire  and  along  the  Danube  and  Rhine  at  the  close  of 
the  fourth  and  beginning  of  the  fifth  century.  They  entered  the 
empire  from  without.  They  were  forced  into  it  by  the  Hunns 
and  other  more  northern  hordes,  who  violently  drove  them  from 
their  dwellings,  as  the  vapor  and  electricity  of  a  storm  are  driven 
over  a  territory,  not  by  powers  inherent  in  themselves,  but  by 
the  wind.  Their  incursions  were  marked  by  a  terrible  slaughter 
of  the  inhabitants  and  destruction  by  exposure,  famine,  and  sick- 
ness, consequent  on  the  ruin  of  their  dwellings  and  crops  ;  and 
under  these  calamities  the  young,  the  feeble,  and  the  aged,  which 
to  the  stronger  are  as  grass  compared  to  trees,  sunk  in  greater 
proportion  than  the  active  and  sturdy.  And  finally,  on  fulfilling 
their  office  of  destruction,  they  in  a  large  degree  disappeared  as 
organized  bodies,  either  by  slaughter  and  pestilence,  intermixture 
with  the  surviving  population,  or  a  retreat  from  the  empire. 
The  invaders  of  Italy  especially  erected  no  independent  govern- 
ment, and  made  no  absolute  conquest,  but  like  a  tornado,  which 
strewing  a  fertile  region  with  the  wreck  of  its  groves  and  its 
crops,  rapidly  wafts  off,  and  gives  place  to  tranquillity,  they  soon 
disappeared,  and  left  few  other  traces  than  the  ruins  of  devastated 
cities  and  villas  and  the  silence  of  depopulation. 

The  correspondence  of  these  great  agents  and  agencies  with 
the  symbols,  is  seen  from  the  following  passages  from  cotem- 
porary  writers,  and  the  historians  of  the  period. 

Jerome  says  :  "It  fills  one  with  horror  to  trace  the  devasta- 
tions of  the  time.  For  twenty  years  and  more  Roman  blood  has 
been  daily  shed  between  Constantinople  and  the  Julian  Alps. 
The  Goths,  Sarmatians,  Quadi,  Alans,  Hunns,  Vandals,  and 
Marcomanni,  have  plundered  and  devastated  Scythia,  Thrace, 
Macedonia,  Dardania,  Dacia,  Thcssalonia,  Achaia,  Epirus,  Dal- 
matia,  and  the  Pannonias.  How  many  matrons,  how  many  con- 
secrated virgins  and  persons  of  worth  and  rank,  have  been 
mocked  by  those  brutes  !  The  bishops  have  been  made  pris- 
oners, the  presbyters  and  clergy  of  other  orders  slain,  the 
churches  demolished,  horses  stabled  at  the  altars  of  Christ, 
and  the  bones  of  the  marl3Ts  disinterred.     Wailing  and  groans 


THE  FIRST  TRUMPET.  195 

have  been  everywhere,  and  death  in  all  its  forms.  The  Ro- 
man world  is  faUing."^ 

"  The  barbarians  meeting  with  little  resistance,  indulged  in  the 
utmost  cruelty.  The  cities  which  they  captured,  they  so  totally 
destroyed  that  no  traces  of  them  now  remain,  especially  in  Thrace 
and  Greece,  except  here  and  there  a  tower  or  a  gate.  All  the 
men  who  opposed  them  they  slew,  young  and  old,  and  indeed 
sjpared  not  women  nor  even  children  ;  whence  there  is  still  but  a 
sparse  population  in  Italy.  The  plunder  which  they  seized  in 
every  part  of  Europe  was  immense,  and  especially  at  Rome, 
where  they  left  nothing  cither  public  or  private."^ 

"  The  banks  of  the  Rhine  were  crowned  like  those  of  the 
Tyber  with  houses  and  well-cultivated  farms,  and  if  a  poet  de- 
scended the  river  he  might  express  his  doubts  on  which  side 
was  situated  the  territory  of  the  Romans.  This  scene  of  peace 
and  plenty  was  suddenly  changed  into  a  desert,  and  the  pros- 
pect of  the  smoking  ruins  could  alone  distinguish  the  solitude  of 
nature  from  the  desolation  of  man.  The  flourishing  city  of 
Mentz  was  surprised  and  destroyed,  and  many  thousand  Chris- 
tians were  inhumanly  massacred  in  the  church.  Worms  per- 
ished after  a  long  and  obstinate  siege  ;  Strasburg,  Spires,  Rheims, 
Tournay,  Arras,  Amiens,  experienced  the  cruel  oppression  of 
the  German  yoke  ;  and  the  consuming  flames  of  war  spread  from 
the  banks  of  the  Rhine  over  the  greatest  part  of  the  seventeen 
provinces  of  Gaul.  That  rich  and  extensive  country  as  far  as 
the  ocean,  the  Alps,  and  the  Pyrenees,  was  delivered  to  the 
Barbarians,  who  drove  before  them  in  a  promiscuous  crowd  the 
bishop,  the  senator,  and  the  virgin,  laden  with  the  spoils  of  their 
houses  and  altars."^ 

Commentators  vary  as  usual  in  their  views  of  the  import  of 
this  symbol.  Grotius  interprets  the  hail  of  an  obduration  of  the 
heart,  and  the  blood  of  sanguinary  passions,  or  resentment,  which 
is  to  make  agents  symbols  of  qualities  or  passions  instead  of 
actors,  and  is  thence  against  analogy.  He,  with  Dr.  Hammond, 
Eichhorn,  and  Rosenmuller,  refers  the  symbol,  as  well  as  those 
that  follow,  to  the  Jewish  war.  But  there  are  no  resemblances. 
No  great  revolution  like  that  denoted  by  the  voices,  thunders, 
lightnings,  and  earthquake  following  the  casting  of  the  fire  to  the 
earth,  preceded  that  war.  The  army  assailing  the  Jews  did  not 
enter  Judea  from  without  the  empire.  The  Roman  army  did  not 
disappear  by  intermixture  with  the  people  of  Judea,  retreat,  or 

•  Hieron.  Epist.  iii.  torn.  i.  p.  17.  ^  Procopii  Hist.  Vandal,  lib.  i.  p.  & 

'  Gibbon's  Hist,  Decl.  and  Fall,  chap.  xxx.  vol.  iii.  p.  183. 


196  THE  FIRST  TRUMPET. 

annihilation  after  tlie  termination  of  the  contest.  It  was  the 
Jews  who  were  disbanded  by  the  conflict,  not  their  conquerors  ; 
and  finally,  that  war  had  passed  before  the  period  of  the  vision. 

The  construction  by  Dean  Woodhouse,  who  interprets  it  of  the 
persecution  of  the  church  by  the  Jews,  is  embarrassed  by  simi- 
lar objections.  That  persecution  had  chiefly  passed  before  the 
period  of  the  revelation.  It  was  not  preceded  by  any  important 
change  of  the  Roman  government,  such  as  is  denoted  by  the 
earthquake.  The  persecutors  did  not  come  from  without  the 
empire.  It  was  the  Roman  magistrates,  not  the  Jews,  who  put 
the  Christians  to  death.  The  Jews  had  no  political  power. 
They  were  subjects,  not  rulers.  The  Jews  did  not  disappear 
from  the  scene  on  the  close  of  that  persecution, 

Mr.  Brightman  regards  the  hail  as  symbolizing  the  tumults 
occasioned  by  the  Arian  bishops,  who  were  dissatisfied  with  the 
decrees  of  the  council  of  Nicaea,  the  blood  as  representing  the 
persecution  of  the  church  by  the  successors  of  Constantine,  the 
trees  and  grass  the  members  of  the  church,  and  their  destruction 
their  apostasy  to  false  doctrines.  But  that  is  in  like  manner 
without  any  of  the  requisite  correspondences.  What  analogy 
is  there  between  the  descent  of  a  destructive  hail-storm,  and  the 
dissension  of  bishops  and  churches  respecting  the  decisions  of  a 
council ;  between  the  devastation  of  a  vast  tract  of  country  by  a 
burning  tornado,  borne  from  a  distant  region,  and  the  slaughter 
of  a  few  thousand  Christians  by  those  under  whose  rule  they 
lived  ;  or  between  the  destruction  of  fields  and  groves  by  such  an 
invading  whirlwind,  and  the  voluntary  apostasy  of  churches  and 
individuals  to  erroneous  doctrine  ? 

Vitringa  regards  the  hail,  lightning,  and  blood  as  symbols  of 
famine,  pestilence,  and  war,  and  interprets  them  of  those  with 
which  the  Roman  empire  was  wasted  from  Decius  to  Gallienus. 
But  that  is  to  construe  the  symbol  by  its  parts,  not  as  a  whole  ; 
an  error  common  to  the  great  body  of  interpreters,  and  more 
fruitful  of  misconception,  perhaps,  than  any  other.  Their  in- 
quiry has  been,  not  what  power,  vmiting  in  itself  all  the  charac- 
ters of  that  burning  whirlwind,  invaded  the  Roman  empire  and 
spread  it  with  slaughter ;  but  what  are  hail,  fire,  and  blood  used 
to  denote  in  other  passages  of  JScripturc,  or  what  are  they  sev- 
erally adapted  to  denote;  and  have  interpreted  them  accordingly 
independently  of  each  other,  as  though  separately  employed  as 
metaphors,  in  place  of  being  united  in  a  symbol.  Hence,  as  fire 
is  often  used  to  metaphorize  wrath,  Grotius  interprets  the  light- 
nings of  exasperation ;  and  hail,  as  it  is  hard,  of  an  obduratioi? 


THE  SECOND  TRUMPET.  197 

of  heart.  As  whirlwinds  which  uproot  trees  and  throw  the  bar- 
ren soil  to  the  surface,  create  sterility,  and  sterility  gives  birth  to 
scarcity,  Vitringa  interprets  that  agency  of  the  tempest  of  famine, 
and  for  like  reasons,  lightnings  of  pestilence,  and  blood  of  war. 
Mr.  Mede,  Dr.  More,  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  Mr.  Daubuz,  Bishop 
Newton,  Dean  Woodhouse,  and  most  others,  follow  that  rule 
universally.  But  it  is  as  alien  from  the  laws  of  symbolization,  as 
it  were  from  those  of  language,  to  interpret  the  words  of  a  sen- 
tence independently  of  their  relation  to  each  other.  Wind, 
vapor,  ice,  rain,  lightning,  united  in  one  resistless  agent,  and 
sweeping  devastation  over  a  fertile  country,  are  as  different  from 
those  elements  taken  separately,  as  the  muscle,  bone,  nerve,  life, 
and  sense  that  united  make  up  a  ferocious  wild  beast,  are  from 
its  constituent  parts  when  divested  of  life  and  distributed  to  their 
several  elements ;  and  it  is  accordingly  as  preposterous  to  seek 
the  import  of  a  prophetic  symbol  by  an  analysis  of  its  parts,  as  it 
were  to  attempt  to  ascertain  the  nature  of  an  animal,  by  a  chemi- 
cal examination  of  the  last  forms  into  which  its  body  is  capable 
of  being  resolved. 

Mr.  Mede,  Dr.  More,  Mr.  Jurieu,  Mr.  Daubuz,  Mr.  Whiston, 
Bishop  Newton,  Mr.  Faber,  Mr.  Cuninghame,  and  many  other 
commentators,  unite  in  regarding  the  symbol  as  denoting  the  in- 
vasion of  the  empire  by  the  Goths  ;  some  interpreting  it  of  their 
first  incursions  from  the  year  363  or  376  to  395,  others,  with 
wiiom  I  concur,  of  those  following  the  death  of  Theodosius  in 
395  to  410.  It  was  not  until  the  reign  of  Theodosius  that  the 
great  revolution  denoted  by  the  earthquake,  and  commenced  un- 
der Constantine,  was  consummated  by  the  legal  prohibition  of 
paganism  and  adoption  of  Christianity  as  the  sole  religion  of  the 
empire.^ 


SECTION  XVIII. 

CHAPTER    VIII.   8,  9. 
THE  SECOND  TRUMPET. 

And  the  second  angel  sounded  ;  and  as  it  were  a  great  mountain 
burning  with  fire  was  cast  into  the  sea.     And  the  third  of  the  sea 

^  Codicis  TheoA  lib  xvi.  tit.  x.  leg.  7-12.     Gibbon's  Hist.  Decl.  and  Fall,  chap. 

xxviiL 


198  THE  SECOND  TRUMPET. 

became  blood,  and  the  third  of  the  creatures  in  the  sea  which  had 
life  died,  and  the  third  of  the  ships  were  destroyed. 

This  symbol  is  a  volcanic  mountain,  thrown  up  from  its  an- 
cient station  at  a  vast  distance  by  an  explosion  of  the  flaming 
elements  at  its  base,  precipitated  into  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
spread  out  to  the  eye  of  the  prophet  as  he  stood  at  the  vestibule 
of  the  temple,  and  from  that  position  projecting  its  burning  lava 
over  the  neighboring  waters,  discoloring  them  by  the  gleam  of 
its  fires  or  the  intermixture  of  its  ashes,  strewing  them  with  fish 
destroyed  by  its  poisonous  minerals  or  heat,  and  firing  the  ships 
or  dashing  them  by  the  descent  of  heavy  masses.  The  third 
of  the  sea  denotes,  as  in  the  former  symbol,  the  proportion  of 
the  surface  of  the  water  which  was  discolored,  and  the  third 
of  the  fish  and  of  the  ships,  the  proportion  of  the  fish  and  ships 
that  were  destroyed  to  the  whole  ;  not  the  whole  of  tlie  water, 
the  fish,  and  the  ships  of  one-third  of  the  sea,  in  distinction  fron:i 
the  other  two-thirds.  The  masses  thrown  from  a  volcano  fall  at 
different  points,  and  leave  wide  interspaces  unaffected.  The  di- 
rection of  the  lighter  elements  is  determined  largely  by  tlie  wind. 
They  shower  as  the  breeze  varies,  or  they  ascend  into  different 
currents  of  air,  now  on  this  region  and  now  on  that. 

An  agent  descending  into  the  Roman  empire,  to  correspond 
with  this  symbol,  must  obviously  be  one  of  great  power,  impel- 
led from  its  ancient  position  by  an  irresistible  force,  carrying 
within  itself  the  elements  of  annoyance  and  destruction  to  sur- 
rounding objects,  assuming  a  fixed  station  in  the  empire,  and 
thence  frequently  projecting  the  instruments  of  devastation  and 
death  on  the  neighboring  regions.  And  such  most  conspicuously 
were  the  Vandals  under  Genseric,  who  forced  from  their  native 
seat  by  the  Hunns,  passed  through  France  and  Spain  into  Afri- 
ca, conquered  the  Carthaginian  territory,  established  an  inde- 
pendent government,  and  thence  through  a  long  period,  harassed 
the  neighboring  islands  and  the  Mediterranean  shores  by  preda- 
tory and  devastating  incursions,  intercepting  the  commerce  of 
the  sea,  plundering  and  firing  the  cities,  and  slaughtering  the  in- 
habitants.^    These  latter  characteristics  were  peculiar  to  tliem, 

'  "  Genseric  having  strengthened  himself  by  Moorish  auxiliaries,  as  often  as 
spring  returned,  harassed  now  8icily,  now  Italy,  by  marauding  invasions ;  redu- 
cing some  cities  to  servitude,  demolLsliing  others,  and  exhausting  all  by  plunder 
and  exactions,  until  induced  by  their  devastation  and  poverty  to  sail  away,  he 
turned  to  the  eastern  empire,  and  invaded  Illyria,  Pelojwnnesia,  and  the  adja- 
cent islands,  and  returning  again  entered  Italy  and  Sicily,  and  gleaned  whatever 
plunder  he  had  before  left." — Procopii  Hist.  Vandal,  lib.  i.  p.  18.  Also  Isidori  Hist 
Wandal.  pj).  733-735.     Gibbon's  Hist.  chap,  xxxvi. 


THE  SECOND  TRUMPET.  199 

and  distinguished  them  from  the  earher  and  later  Gothic  armies, 
as  widely  as  a  volcano  differs  in  its  fixed  statioii  and  distinctive 
agency,  from  the  rapid  movement  and  transitory  influence  of  a 
burning  tornado. 

The  different  views  which  writers  have  given  of  the  symbol 
present  nothing  to  invalidate  this  exposition.  Grotius  exhibits 
both  the  sea  and  the  fish  as  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  the 
mountain  as  the  fortress  Antonia,  and  the  ships  as  the  sacred  ves- 
sels which  were  plundered  from  the  temple  ;  a  fancy  too  absurd 
to  need  a  refutation.  Was  the  tower  Antonia  precipitated  into 
the  city  from  a  distance  ?  Is  there  any  analogy  between  ships 
floating  the  ocean,  navigated  by  men,  laden  with  treasures,  and 
fired  or  sunk  by  burning  masses  from  a  distant  volcano,  and 
tongs,  snuffers,  censers,  knives,  cups,  plates,  and  other  utensils, 
plundered  from  the  temple  ? 

Dr.  Hammond  and  Rosenmuller  interpret  the  sea  of  Galilee, 
the  volcano  of  the  army  of  Vespasian  desolating  it  in  the  year 
69,  the  fish  of  the  Jewish  population,  and  the  ships  of  the  cities. 
But  they  are  without  any  correspondence  with  the  symbol.  The 
Roman  army  did  not  enter  Galilee  from  without  the  empire. 
Vespasian  did  not  establish  a  new  and  independent  government ; 
he  merely  checked  an  insurrection,  and  reinstated  the  Roman 
power  in  its  supremacy.  His  was  not  a  wanton  attack  on  the 
peaceable  and  unoffending  for  mere  plunder  and  devastation  ;  but 
a  resistance  of  assailants  and  a  conquest  of  revolters  ;  and  finally, 
its  period  was  twenty-five  or  twenty-six  years  anterior  to  the 
visions. 

Cocceius  interprets  the  dejection  of  the  mountain  into  the 
sea,  of  the  overthrow  of  Jerusalem  and  the  temple,  and  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Jewish  polity  ;  the  destruction  of  the  fish  of  the 
relapse  of  men  from  Christianity  to  gentilism,  and  the  burning 
of  the  ships,  of  the  subversion  of  churches  and  synagogues  ; 
all  which  are  inconsistent  with  the  symbol.  The  volcanic  moun- 
tain represents  the  destructive  agent,  not  the  subject  of  the  de- 
struction ;  and  its  dejection  its  movement  to  the  scene  of  its 
agency,  not  the  effects  wrought  on  the  waters  by  the  fall  of  its 
lava.  The  fish  denote  persons  that  are  destroyed  by  its  agency,  not 
such  as  are  induced  by  other  causes  to  relapse  to  a  false  worship. 

Mr.  Brightman  regarded  the  sea  as  pure  doctrine,  the  moun- 
tain as  aspiring  prelates,  the  fire  as  their  ambition,  the  discolora- 
tion of  the  waters  as  the  introduction  of  false  doctrines,  the  fish 
as  the  lower  ranks  of  ecclesiastics  and  the  monks,  the  ships  of 
those  whose  office  it  was  to  preach  tlie  gospel ;  applications 


200  THE   SECOND  TRUMPET. 

which  it  were  not  easy  to  transcend  in  absurdity.  What  resem- 
blance is  there  between  a  restless  and  often  tempestuous  sea  and 
pure  doctrine  ;  the  one  a  mighty  physical  agent,  the  other  mere 
propositions  ?  Or  what  between  the  infusion  into  water  of  a  for- 
eign element,  and  the  substitution  of  error  for  truth?  What 
analogy  is  there  between  a  ship  traversing  the  bosom  of  the 
ocean  and  excluding  from  itself  that  on  which  it  floats,  and  a 
teacher  whose  office  it  is  to  communicate  to  others  the  knowl- 
edge which  he  has  treasured  up  in  himself  of  the  word  of  God  ? 

Mr.  Daubuz  interprets  the  mountain  of  Rome,  its  burning  of 
the  conquest  and  conflagration  of  that  city  by  Alaric,  and  the 
destruction  of  the  ships  of  the  plunder  of  its  wealth.  But  that 
is  to  make  the  mountain  the  subject  of  the  destructive  agency  in 
place  of  the  destroying  agent,  and  the  plunder  of  itself,  its  de- 
struction of  distant  objects. 

Vitringa  interprets  it  of  the  incursions  of  the  Goths  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  third  century,  Mr.  Mede  of  the  sack  of  Rome, 
and  devastation  and  conquest  of  the  provinces  from  the  year  410 
to  450,  Bishop  Newton  of  the  ravages  by  Attila, Dr.  Cressener  of 
the  invasions  and  conquests  of  the  transalpine  provinces  from 
412  to  446,  Mr.  Cuninghame  of  the  ravages  of  Alaric,  Rhada- 
gaisus,  and  others,  as  well  as  Genseric. 

Dean  Wood  house,  proceeding  on  the  assumption  that  the 
events  foreshadowed  by  the  symbols  of  the  trumpets  as  well  as 
the  seals,  are  to  be  sought  in  the  religious  rather  than  in  the 
civil  and  military  world,  interprets  the  mountain  of  the  idolatrous 
powers  of  the  Roman  empire,  its  burning  of  the  gradual  decay 
of  that  parly,  the  sea  of  the  gentile  Christians,  and  the  blood 
and  devastation  of  their  apostasy  under  persecution.  But  they 
present  none  of  the  required  resemblances,  and  contradict  anal- 
ogy. Those  idolaters  did  not  intrude  into  the  empire  from  a 
distant  region,  and  establish  themselves  in  opposition  to  another 
religious  body.  They  did  not  sink  from  power  by  a  natural 
decay,  but  were  opposed  and  overthrown  by  antagonists  of  the 
Christian  religion.  The  gentile  Christians  sustained  no  such 
relations  to  the  Roman  people  at  large,  as  a  sea  sustains  to  other 
waters.  They  were  not  a  separate  community,  but  intermixed 
promiscuously  with  the  heathen  population.  And  finally,  though 
the  violent  destruction  of  the  body  may  appropriately  represent 
the  violent  destruction  of  the  soul,  the  death  of  animals  cannot 
symbolize  a  spiritual  death.  As  the  antithesis  of  the  human  body 
is  the  conscious  intelligent  spirit,  so  the  antithesis  of  the  body 
of  a  brute  is  that  element  of  its  nature  which  is  the   seat  of  its 


THE  THIRD  TRUMPET  201 

perception  and  consciousness  If  the  death  of  the  bodies  of 
brutes  therefore  were  a  symbol  of  the  death  of  perceptive  natures, 
it  would  denote  the  extinction  of  their  own  perceptive  and  con- 
scious nature,  not  a  fall  of  intelligent  beings  to  a  false  religion. 

Mr.  Faber,  Mr.  Keith,  Mr.  Elliott  and  others,  interpret  the 
symbol  chiefly  of  the  conquests  and  devastations  by  Genseric, 
but  on  grounds  differing  from  those  which  have  led  me  to  that 
construction. 


SECTION  XIX. 

CHAPTER    VIII.    10,11. 
THE    THIRD    TRUMPET. 


And  the  third  angel  sounded  ;  and  a  great  star  burning  like  a  torch 
fell  from  heaven,  and  fell  on  the  third  of  the  rivers  and  on  the  foun- 
tains of  waters.  And  the  star  was  named  The  Wormwood  :  and  the 
third  of  the  waters  became  wormwood,  and  many  of  the  men  died 
of  the  waters,  because  they  were  embittered. 

The  star  obviously  was  not  a  solid  globe,  but  a  thin  transpa- 
rent meteor,  which  as  it  swept  along  near  the  surface  and  sunk 
to  the  ground,  still  left  the  objects  it  enveloped  perceptible  to  the 
apostle  ;  and  was  soon  absorbed  by  the  waters  and  earth.  He 
beheld  the  rivers  and  fountains  still  running,  discerned  a  change 
wrought  in  them  by  the  meteor,  and  saw  that  it  was  the  new  el- 
ement infused  into  them  that  rendered  them  deadly  to  many  of 
those,  who  dwelling  on  their  banks  at  a  distance,  drank  of  them. 
As  the  scene  exhibited  to  him  was  the  apocalyptic  earth,  and  the 
waters  its  real  rivers  and  fountains,  the  meteor  doubtless  descend- 
ed on  a  part  of  the  Roman  empire  where  fountains  abounded  and 
conspicuous  rivers  begin  their  course,  and  therefoi-e  on  a  moun- 
tainous region.  And  as  the  Alps  give  rise  to  a  greater  number 
of  considerable  streams  than  any  others  in  the  empire,  it  is  prob- 
able the  angel  sounding  the  trumpet  was  stationed  over  their 
heights,  and  that  the  meteor  fell  on  the  lofty  ranges  whence  the 
streams  emerge,  and  the  valleys  through  which  they  descend  to 
the  Mediterranean,  the  Adriatic,  and  the  Euxine  seas. 

The  third  of  the  rivers  denotes  the  proportion  of  those  which 
the  meteor  embittered,  to  the  whole.      The  meteor  was  named 

26 


202  THE    THIRD    TRUMPET. 

The  Wormwood,  from  its  influence  on  the  waters.  It  tinged  them 
with  bitterness,  and  became  the  means  of  death  to  many  who  re- 
sided on  their  borders  in  the  distant  regions  which  they  traversed, 
or  where  they  mingle  with  the  sea. 

For  the  counterpart  of  this  symbol  drawn  from  the  physical, 
analogy  requires  us  to  look  to  the  civil  world.  As  in  a  great  em- 
pire like  the  Roman,  embracing  many  nations  and  tribes,  the  cen- 
tral and  most  numerous  people  is  to  distant  and  tributary  com- 
munities, what  the  sea  is  to  the  fountains  and  streams  that  descend 
into  it,  the  fountains  obviously  and  rivers  on  which  the  meteor  fell, 
are  representatives  of  communities  and  tribes  at  a  distance  from 
the  capital,  which  are  perpetually  descending  towards  the  centre 
and  intermixing  with  the  main  population.  As  the  fountains  and 
streams  denote  those  tribes  and  communities,  the  men  who  were 
killed  by  the  bitter  infusion  into  their  waters,  are  not  men  of  those 
tribes  and  communities,  but  others  residing  on  their  banks  in  the 
distant  countries  through  which  they  pass,  or  the  central  popula- 
tion towards  which  those  tribes  tend.  Otherwise  the  poisoned 
waters  and  those  who  drank  them  were  the  same. 

The  symbol  thus  denotes  the  descent  of  a  terrible  agent  on  the 
skirts  of  the  empire  occupied  by  various  tribes  and  communities, 
and  infusion  into  their  disposition  and  policy  of  a  new  element,  by 
which  they  became  pernicious  and  destructive  to  the  central  pop- 
ulation and  others. 

And  such  pre-eminently  were  the  characteristics  of  the  Sc)^- 
tliian  hordes  under  Attila,  and  the  effects  of  their  invasion  of  the 
northern  and  western  skirts  of  the  empire.  Like  a  meteor  de- 
scending from  the  distant  regions  of  the  atmosphere,  they  came 
from  the  remote  solitudes  of  Asia.  As  the  elements  of  the  star 
were  soon  absorbed  by  the  waters  where  it  fell,  so  they  were 
Avasted  in  a  large  degree  in  their  disastrous  contests  with  the 
Visigoths,  Franks,  and  others,  and  disbanded  and  absorbed  by 
the  tribes  of  the  Danube  and  Germany  on  the  death,  soon  after,  of 
Attila.  The  success  of  the  Gauls,  Visigoths,  and  Alans  in  resist- 
ing the  aggressions  of  so  powerful  a  foe,  their  determination  to 
repel  all  further  ini'oads  of  the  barbarians  and  maintain  possession 
of  their  respective  territories,  and  the  dissolution  at  the  death  of 
Attila  of  the  Scythian  empire,  withlicld  the  northern  hordes  from 
again  invading  them,  and  left  them  thereafter  to  subsist  as  sep- 
arate and  independent  nations,  and  assume  relations  towards  Ita- 
ly that  became  the  occasion  to  it  of  slaughters  through  a  long  suc- 
cession of  ages.  Their  warlike  youth  left  without  employment 
by  their  independence,  soon  after  enlisted  in  large  numbers  in  the 


THE  THIRD  TRUMPET.  203 

Italian  armies  and  became  a  scourge  alike  to  the  people  and  ru- 
lers, and  prepared  the  way  for  their  subjugation  ;  and  the  circle 
of  nations  around  the  Alps,  like  their  rivers  which  have  never 
ceased  to  flow,  have  continued  from  age  to  age  to  make  that  coun- 
try their  battle-field,  and  waste  it  with  slaughter. 

Atlila  was  opposed  at  the  battle  of  Chalons  in  451,  by  the  Vis- 
igoths, Alans,  Franks,  and  Romans.  The  slaughter  was  so  vast, 
that  a  rivulet  passing  through  the  plain  is  said  to  have  become 
colored  and  swollen  with  blood.'  On  his  advancing  against  the 
Alans  in  453,  he  was  again  met  on  the  same  ground  by  the  com- 
bined forces  of  that  tribe  and  the  Visigoths,  and  suffered  an  equal 
defeat.^  He  met  a  powerful  resistance  in  his  invasion  of  Italy  in 
452,  and  though  he  at  length  conquered  Aquileia  and  wasted  the 
cities  of  Lombardy,  he  rehnquished  them  to  the  Romans  and  re- 
tired again  beyond  the  Danube  ;  and  on  the  war  between  his 
sons  and  separation  of  the  hordes  that  formed  his  army,  the  Her- 
vdi,  Ostrogoths,  and  Lombards  who  subsequently  conquered  Italy, 
settled  in  Illyria  and  Pannonia,  and  were  the  last  of  the  northern 
tribes  that  established  kingdoms  within  the  limits  of  the  western 
empire.  Their  wars  thereafter  were  wars  with  one  another,  and 
Italy  was  the  prize  for  which  not  only  the  Heruli,  Ostrogoths,  and 
Lombards  fought,  but  the  French,  Germans,  and  Spaniards  in  a 
large  part  of  their  wars  from  the  eighth  to  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. 

There  is  less  diversity  among  interpreters  in  the  application  of 
this  symbol,  than  of  those  that  precede  it.  (jrotius,  Dr.  Ham- 
mond and  Rosenmuller,  interpret  it  of  some  actor  in  the  Jewish 
war,  as  Eleazar,  Joscphus  the  son  of  Matthias,  or  others,  pre- 
senting, however,  not  the  slightest  trace  of  a  correspondence. 
What  analog}^  is  there,  for  example,  between  Eleazar  the  priest's 
refusal  to  offer  the  emperor's  sacrifices  alleged  as  its  counter- 
part by  Rosenmuller,  and  the  fall  on  fountains  and  streams  of  a 
star  that  tinges  them  with  bitterness  ;  between  the  refusal  or  dis- 
continuance of  an  action,  and  the  exertion  of  a  new  and  momen- 
tous agency  ? 

Mr.  Brightman  interprets  the  star  of  Constantius  ;  its  fall  of 
his  defection  to  Arianism  ;  its  embittering  the  waters,  of  his  indu- 
cing the  bishops  to  disseminate  that  error  ;  and  the  death,  of  its  in- 
fluence on  those  who  were  seduced  to  its  adoption.  But  that  is 
wholly  without  analogy.  Constantius,  if  a  star,  was  such  simply 
as  a  ruler.      He  was  not  a  teacher.      His  fall  thence,  if  he  fell, 

'  Jornandis  de  Kebus  Get.  c.  40. 

*  Ibid.  c.  43.     yigonii  de  Occid.  Imp.  lib.  xiii.  p.  227. 


204  THE    THIRD    TRUMPET. 

must  have  been  either  a  precipitation  from  the  throne  to  a 
private  station,  or  else  a  descent  as  a  conqueror  on  some  kingdom 
exterior  to  his  empire.  A  mere  change  of  opinion  while  continu- 
ing to  occupy  the  throne,  exhibits  no  counterpart  to  the  symbol. 

Cocceius  and  Vitringa  likewise  expound  it  of  Arianism,  in- 
terpreting the  star  of  the  author  of  that  error,  its  fall  of  his  dejec- 
tion from  office,  the  bitterness  of  his  false  doctrine,  and  the  death 
of  its  effects.  But  they  are  without  correspondence.  Arius  was 
not  brought  into  contact  with  those  who  were  induced  to  adopt 
his  opinions,  by  his  dejection  from  office.  Those  who  became 
his  disciples  were  not  to  the  church  or  the  empire,  what  the  foun- 
tains and  streams  are  to  the  sea.  The  church  exhibited  no  coun- 
terpart to  the  physical  world,  from  which  this  symbol  and  those 
of  the  first,  second,  and  fourth  trumpets  are  drawn.  As  the  land, 
the  sea,  the  fountains  and  streams,  and  the  heavenly  bodies  make 
up  a  whole  system,  so  the  analogous  system  which  it  represents 
must  embrace  a  whole  social  system,  and  be  a  civil  empire,  there- 
fore, which  includes  all  classes  of  population,  and  all  ranks  of  ru- 
lers ;  not  the  church  which  did  not  include  the  whole  communi- 
ty in  which  it  subsisted,  was  made  up  of  several  hierarchies  that 
were  independent  of  each  other,  had  no  supreme  ecclesiastical 
head,  and  was  subject  moreover  to  a  civil  dominion. 

And  finally,  there  is  an  analogy  between  intelligent  bodied  be- 
ings acting  on  fellow  intelligences  as  bodied  beings,  and  such  in- 
telligences acting  on  each  other  as  spirits.  But  there  is  no  such 
analogy  between  the  agency  of  a  mere  unintelligent  cause  on 
unintelligent  or  unconscious  objects,  and  the  spiritual  agency  of 
one  intelligence  on  another.  In  order  to  analogy,  either  both 
the  symbolic  and  the  symbolized  agency  must  be  physical,  both 
agents  voluntary,  or  both  subjects  of  the  agency  voluntary.  A 
physical  agency  of  an  unintelligent  cause  may  symbolize  a  phy- 
sical agency,  as  by  a  sword,  of  a  voluntary  cause  :  a  physical 
agency  of  a  voluntary  cause  may  symbolize  a  spiritual  influence 
of  a  voluntary  agent ;  and  a  physical  agency  on  men  a  spiritual 
agency  on  them.  The  proper  symbol  thence  of  a  spiritual  in- 
fluence on  men,  is  a  physical  agency  on  them,  either  of  man  as 
under  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  seals,  or  of  some  other  cause, 
as  of  a  star  or  lamp.  None  of  the  great  agents  accordingly  of 
the  natural  world  that  are  used  as  symbols  in  their  exertion  of 
influences  on  unintelligent  objects,  denote  men  in  the  exertion  of 
spiritual  influences.  They  symbolize  civil  and  military  agents 
only  in  the  exertion  of  a  physical  force,  in  contradistinction  from 
a  moral  power. 


THE  FOURTH  TRUMPET.  205 

When  stars  are  used  as  symbols  of  teachers,  it  is  in  their  re- 
lations as  light  giving  bodies  to  man,  not  to  the  material  world. 
It  is  in  that  relation  also  that  lamps  are  employed  to  symbolize 
the  Holy  Spirit.  Man  is  the  subject  in  each  instance  of  the 
symbolic  agency,  as  well  as  that  which  is  symbolized.  Had  this 
law  been  observed  it  would  have  withheld  commentators  from  a 
large  share  of  their  misapplications  of  the  prophecy. 

The  exposition  of  the  symbol  given  by  Dean  Woodhouse, 
who  interprets  it  of  heretical  teachers,  such  as  were  Simon 
Magus,  Menander,  and  Cerinthus,  is  open  to  the  same  objection. 

Mr.  Lowman  expounds  it  of  the  whole  series  of  invasions  and 
wars  from  Genseric  to  the  reconquest  of  Italy  by  Justinian  ; 
Bishop  Newton  of  the  mere  capture  and  pillage  of  Rome  by 
Genseric  ;  but  neither  has  the  requisite  resemblances.  As  every 
part  of  the  empire  was  devastated  by  those  wars,  what  were  the 
different  and  distant  nations  that  were  killed  by  the  poisoned 
waters,  or  what  communities  were  they,  in  distinction  from  the 
people  of  Rome,  that  suffered  by  the  sack  of  that  city  ? 

Mr.  Mede  interprets  the  fall  of  the  star  of  the  dejection  of  the 
western  emperor  by  the  Heruli  in  the  year  476.  But  that  is  to 
make  the  star  the  subject  of  the  calamity,  in  place  of  the  cause 
of  it  to  the  tribes  and  nations  that  are  symbolized  by  the  foun- 
tains and  rivers. 

Mr.  Daubuz,  Mr,  Whiston,  Mr,  Cuninghame,  Mr,  Keith,  Mr. 
Elliott,  interpret  it  of  the  Hunns  under  Attila,  but  on  the  mere 
ground  of  the  slaughters  they  occasioned,  or  the  scene  of  their 
exploits,  not  of  the  correspondences  of  their  agency  and  its  re- 
sults with  the  peculiarities  of  the  symbol. 


SECTION  XX. 
CHAPTER  VIII.   12. 

THE    FOURTH    TRUAIPET. 


And  the  fourth  angel  sounded ;  and  the  third  of  the  sun  was  smit- 
ten, and  the  third  of  the  moon,  and  the  third  of  the  stars,  that  the 
third  of  them  should  be  darkened,  and  the  day,  the  third  of  it  should 
not  shine,  and  the  night  likewise. 

As  the  land,  the  sea,  and  the  fountains  and  streams,  acted  on 
by  other  physical  causes,  denote  the  population  of  an  empire  in 


206  THE    FOURTH    TRUMPET. 

their  political  and  military  relations  in  which  they  are  acted  on 
by  force  ;  so  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  which  preside  over  the 
land  and  sea,  and  give  them  light  and  warmth,  are  representa- 
tives of  the  rulers  who  appoint  laws  to  the  people,  and  exert  a 
chief  influence  in  determining  their  physical  and  civil  conditions  ; 
such  as  the  central  or  imperial,  the  provincial  and  the  municipal. 
As  in  the  Roman  empire  after  the  death  of  Constantino,  there 
was  more  than  one  of  each  of  these  classes,  the  stroke  on  the 
sun,  moon,  and  stars,  by  which  a  part  of  them  was  to  be  darken- 
ed, denotes  a  violent  extinction  of  some  of  the  governments  or 
political  organizations  of  those  several  orders  :  the  third  part 
expressing  the  proportion  of  their  power  and  influence  which 
were  to  be  overthrown  to  the  whole. 

That  catastrophe  was  undoubtedly  the  subversion  of  the  west- 
ern imperial  government  and  its  dependent  organizations,  and 
institution  in  its  place  of  a  new  rule  by  the  Heruli,  in  the  year 
476.  The  tv^^o  thirds  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  that  still 
shone,  were  the  corresponding  governments  of  the  eastern  em- 
pire, which  at  that  period  greatly  surpassed  the  other  in  splendor 
and  strength,  and  still  continued  to  shed  either  a  brilliant  or 
feeble  ray  through  near  a  thousand  years.  There  is  no  other 
event  that  in  the  slightest  degree  meets  the  conditions  of  the 
symbol.  As  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  were  created  at  the 
same  epoch  with  the  earth  which  they  illumine  and  rule,  and  are 
its  only  light-giving  orbs  through  its  whole  period,  so  in  order  to 
analogy,  the  governments  which  they  symbolize  must  sustain  the 
same  relation  towards  the  empire  over  which  they  preside.  But 
there  is  no  other  instance  in  the  history  of  the  Roman  empire,  in 
which  a  branch  of  the  supreme  government,  witii  its  subordinate 
organizations  and  institutions  that  had  subsisted  from  the  begin- 
ning, was  extinguished,  leaving  another  part  of  superior  power 
still  to  prolong  its  being  and  shine  on  through  many  ages.  There 
were  short  periods,  indeed,  after  the  division  of  the  empire  into 
the  eastern  and  western,  during  which  the  imperial  rule  reverted 
wholly  to  the  Byzantine  dynasty,  but  the  other  branches  of  the 
western  government  continued  unaltered.  And  that  change  was 
not  an  extinction  in  any  degree  of  the  sun.  If  the  circuit  of  his 
disk  was  apparently  diminished,  there  was  a  proportional  increase 
of  his  effulgence,  and  the  same  influences  were  continued  on  the 
empire  to  which  it  had  been  accustomed.' 

Grotius  interprets  the  symbol  of  the  capture  of  the  cities  of 
Galilee  and  slaughter  of  the  Jews  by  Vespasian.     But  those 

'  Jonmndis,  c.  4G,  pp.  679,  680.     Sigouii  do  Occid.  Imper.  lib.  xiii.  pp.  250,  251. 


THE   FOURTH  TRUMPET.  207 

cities  and  their  people  bore  no  such  relation  to  the  Roman  em- 
pire or  to  Palestine,  as  the  heavenly  luminaries  sustain  to  the 
earth,  and  cannot  have  been  the  object  therefore  which  the  latter 
were  employed  to  represent. 

Dr.  Hammond  interprets  the  sun  of  the  Jewish  temple,  the 
moon  of  Jerusalem,  the  stars  of  its  population,  and  their  obscu- 
ration, of  the  siege  of  the  city.  But  that  is  wholly  without  an- 
alogy. The  temple  was  not  to  the  empire  what  the  sun  is  to  the 
earth.  The  material  city  was  not  to  the  empire  what  the  moon 
is  to  the  earth,  nor  was  it  to  the  temple  what  the  moon  is  to  the 
sun.  The  people  of  the  city  were  not  to  the  population  of  the 
empire  what  the  stars  are  to  our  globe  ;  nor  were  they  to  the  city 
and  temple  what  the  stars  are  to  the  moon  and  sun.  No  con- 
struction can  be  more  at  war  with  the  laws  of  symbolization. 

Mr.  Brightman  expounds  it  of  the  persecution  of  the  African 
church  by  the  Vandals,  interpreting  the  sun  of  the  Scriptures, 
the  moon  of  their  doctrine,  the  stars  of  the  ministers  of  the 
church,  and  their  obscuration  of  the  destruction  of  the  Scriptures 
and  slaughter  of  the  bishops.  But  that  is  equally  without  anal- 
ogy. The  Scriptures  and  bishops  sustained  no  such  relations  to 
the  empire  as  those  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  to  the  earth. 
They  were  not  coeval  with  that  empire.  They  did  not  rule  it 
with  a  supreme  power.  They  did  not  extend  their  hght  equally 
to  its  whole  population.  Though  during  that  persecution  many 
copies  of  the  Scriptures  were  destroyed,  yet  no  part  of  them  was 
absolutely  lost. 

A  like  total  want  of  correspondence  with  the  symbol  marks 
the  exposition  given  by  Dean  Woodhouse,  who  interprets  it  of 
the  ignorance  and  misconception  of  the  gospel,  which  followed 
in  the  train  of  the  false  doctrines  and  superstitions  of  the  third 
and  fourth  centuries.  The  heavenly  luminaries  are  not  proper 
symbols  of  knowledge  itself,  but  of  agents  imparting  knowledge. 
Nor  did  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel  sustain  any  such  relation 
to  the  population  of  the  empire,  as  the  light  of  the  sun,  moon, 
and  stars  sustains  to  the  earth.  It  was  not  coeval  with  that 
population.  It  was  never  equally  enjoyed  by  them  all ;  and  its 
loss,  moreover,  by  the  churches,  took  place  through  their  own 
negligence  or  choice,  not  through  the  irresistible  power  of  a 
foreign  and  hostile  people. 

Vitringa  applies  it  both  to  the  empire  and  the  church,  inter- 
preting the  obscuration  of  the  sun  of  the  decay  of  the  imperial 
government  from  Valens  to  the  fall  of  Augustulus,  and  the  dark- 
ening of  the  moon  and  stars  of  the  false  doctrines  and  corrupt 


208  THE  ANGEL  FLYING  IN  MID-HEAVEN. 

manners  which  from  the  time  of  Constantine  became  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  patriarchs  and  bishops.  But  that  is  to  dissever 
the  symbol  and  expomid  its  parts  independently  of  each  other — 
a  method  which  he  regularly  pursues,  and  which  renders  his 
eminent  genius  and  learning  the  instruments  of  almost  perpetual 
error.  The  power  that  smote  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars 
was  the  same,  but  the  causes  which  reduced  the  imperial  gov- 
ernment to  imbecility  were  wholly  different  from  those  which  in- 
fected the  patriarchs  and  bishops  with  a  corruption  of  doctrine 
and  morals.  Those  patriarchs  and  bishops  were  not  to  the  em- 
pire what  the  moon  and  stars  are  to  the  earth.  They  neither 
began  their  career  with  it,  distributed  their  light  equally  to  all 
its  inhabitants,  nor  exerted  a  principal  influence  in  determining 
their  condition. 

Mr.  Lowman  regards  the  fall  of  Rome  from  her  rank  as  the 
capital,  and  transference  of  the  government  to  Ravenna,  as  the 
fulfilment  of  the  prophecy.  Bisliop  Newton  also  exhibits  it  as  a 
principal  event  in  its  accomphshment.  But  that  is  to  confound 
the  seat  of  the  imperial  government  with  the  government  itself; 
a  station  in  the  heavens  occupied  by  the  sun,  with  the  sun  itself, 
that  sheds  effulgence  from  that  station. 

Mr.  Daubuz,  Dr.  Cressener,  Mr.  Whiston,  Mr.  Cuninghame, 
Mr.  Keith,  Mr.  Elliott,  interpret  it  of  the  fall  of  the  western  im- 
perial government. 


SECTION  XXI. 
CHAPTER   VIII.   13. 

THE    ANGEL    FLYING    IN    MID-HEAVEN. 

And  I  looked,  and  I  heard  one  angel  flying  in  mid-heaven,  saying 
vfith  a  loud  voice.  Woe,  woe,  woe  to  those  dwelling  on  the  earth, 
from  the  remaining  voices  of  the  trumpet  of  the  three  angels  who 
are  about  to  sound. 

This  angel  is,  like  the  others  that  fly  through  heaven,  a  symbol, 
and  denotes  a  class  of  men  who,  after  the  fall  of  the  western  em- 
pire, expressed  apprehensions  of  a  similar  catastrophe  to  the 
eastern  from  Scythian  or  other  distant  tribes,  and  proclaimed  to 
the  churches  that  antichrist  was  soon  to  rise  and  be  overthrown, 
and  the  dawn  commence  of  the  millennial  rest. 


THE  ANGEL  FLYING  IN  MID-HEAVEN.  209 

The  eastern  empire  is  represented  by  the  writers  of  the  period 
as  filled  with  alarms  through  the  whole  of  the  sixth  century,  by 
the  GepidaB,  the  Sclavonians,  the  Turks,  and  the  Persians,  who 
hovered  on  its  skirts,  made  frequent  inroads  into  it,  and  threat- 
ened it  with  a  speedy  overthrow.^  Thrace  and  Greece  were 
frequently  overrun  by  the  barbarians  from  the  Danube  during 
the  reigns  of  Justinian,  Justin  II.,  and  Mauricius,  and  the  capital 
exposed  to  imminent  danger ;  while  the  provinces  of  the  east 
were  twice  wrenched  from  the  empire  by  the  Persians,  and  re- 
covered only  by  reconquest.^ 

With  the  apprehension  of  the  subversion  of  the  Greek  empire 
which  thus  agitated  the  general  mind,  was  conjoined  an  expecta- 
tion by  the  church  of  a  speedy  rise  and  overthrow  of  antichrist 
and  advent  of  the  Judge  of  the  world.  It  was  a  prevalent  opin- 
ion in  that  and  the  preceding  ages,  that  the  millennium  of  rest 
was  to  commence  with  the  seventh  millennium  of  the  world,  and 
that  that  period  was  to  arrive  in  the  sixth  or  seventh  century  of 
the  christian  era.  Thus  Cyprian  :  "  You  ought  to  regard  the 
day  of  trial  as  beginning  to  impend,  and  the  sunset  of  the  age,  the 
time  of  antichrist,  as  already  near,  and  to  stand  ready  for  the  con- 
flict."^ Similar  views  are  represented  by  Augustine  as  held  by 
many  in  his  age.* 

"  Let  the  philosophers,"  says  Lactantius,  "  who  would  com- 
pute the  age  of  the  world,  know  that  the  sixth  millennium  of 
years  has  not  yet  reached  its  close,  and  that  on  the  completion 
of  that  number  the  consummation  is  to  take  place." — "  That  the 
close  of  the  six  thousand  years  is  now  approaching,  may  be  dis- 
cerned from  the  predictions  of  the  prophets,  for  they  foretold 
signs  from  which  the  consummation  may  be  expected  daily. 
How  soon  the  period  is  to  be  completed,  they  who  have  treated 
of  the  subject  have  shown,  by  computing  from  the  Scriptures  the 
ages  that  have  elapsed  since  the  creation  of  the  world,  who 
although  they  vary  somewhat,  yet  unite  in  the  expectation  that 
not  more  than  two  hundred  years  remain.  Even  things  them- 
selves would  indicate  that  the  fall  and  ruin  of  tlie  workl  are  at 
hand,  were  it  not  known  that  they  are  not  to  take  place  while  the 
city  of  Rome  remains  safe.  But  when  that  capital  of  the  world 
shall  fall,  who  will  doubt  that  the  end  of  human  affairs  and  the 
world  itself  has  arrived."^ 

*  Gibbon's  Hist.  Decl.  and  Fall,  chap.  xlvi.  ^  Ibid.  chap.  xlii.  xlv.  xlvi. 
'  Cypriani  Epist.  58. 

*  Augu.st.  de  Civit.  Dei,  lib.  xx.  c.  6,  7.     Epist.  199,  c.  17 
'  Lactantii  de  Vita  Beata,  c.  14,  25. 

27 


210  THE  A>rGEL  FLYING  IN  MID-HEAVEN. 

The  destruction  of  Rome,  the  overthrow  of  all  antichristian 
powers,  and  the  general  judgment,  were  accordingly  proclaimed 
by  the  great  teachers  of  the  church  as  at  hand.  Of  that  nature 
are  the  following  passages  from  Gregory  the  Great,  who  filled  the 
pontifical  throne  from  590  to  604. 

"  Our  Redeemer  desiring  to  find  us  ready  and  restrain  us  from 
the  love  of  the  world,  predicted  the  evils  that  are  to  attend  its 
old  age,  and  the  calamities  that  are  immediately  to  precede  its 
termination,  that  if  we  are  not  inclined  to  regard  him  with  awe 
in  tranquillity,  we  may  at  least,  when  his  judgment  is  nigh,  feel 
a  fear  of  being  overwhelmed  by  his  strokes.  For  the  Lord  had 
said  immediately  before  the  passage  to  which  you  have  now 
listened,  nation  shall  rise  against  nation  and  kingdom  against 
kingdom,  and  there  shall  be  great  earthquakes  and  pestilences 
and  famines  ;  signs  also  in  the  sun,  and  the  moon,  and  the  stars, 
and  on  the  earth  distress  of  nations,  a  roaring  of  the  sea,  and 
waves  in  tumult ;  some  of  which  events  we  know  have  already 
taken  place,  and  others  we  fear  as  nigh  :  for  we  see  that  our 
times  are  marked  more  than  all  former  periods  by  the  rise  of 
nation  against  nation,  and  the  prevalence  among  them  of  calam- 
ities. That  earthquakes  have  overwhelmed  numerous  cities,  you 
learn  as  often  as  you  hear  from  other  quarters  of  the  world.  We 
have  pestilences  without  cessation.  Signs  indeed  in  the  sun, 
and  in  the  moon,  and  in  the  stars,  we  have  not  yet  beheld  ;  but 
tiiat  they  are  not  distant,  we  may  infer  from  the  change  that  has 
taken  place  in  the  air.  Indeed,  before  Italy  was  given  up  to  be 
smitten  by  the  Gothic  sword,  we  saw  fiery  armies  battling  in  the 
sky,  and  the  blood  itself  gleaming  which  was  afterwards  shed  of 
the  human  race.  And  though  no  new  commotion  of  the  sea  has 
hitherto  arisen,  yet  as  most  of  the  signs  foretold  are  already  ful- 
filled, there  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  few  that  remain  are  to 
follow.  These  things  we  mention  that  you  may  be  excited  to 
vigilance." 

"  Behold,  we  now  see  the  events  which  were  predicted.  The 
world  is  oppressed  with  new  and  daily  increasing  evils.  How 
few  remain  of  the  population  that  was  once  innumerable,  you 
see  ;  and  yet  scourges  still  daily  urge,  sudden  catastrophes  over- 
whelm, new  and  unexpected  slaughters  afflict.  For  as  in  youth 
the  body  is  fresh,  the  breast  is  strong  and  sound,  the  neck  braw- 
ny, the  arms  plump,  but  in  old  age  llie  form  stoops,  the  withered 
neck  declines,  the  breast  labors  with  frequent  sighs,  strength 
fails,  and  the  speech  is  interrupted  ;  for  though  languor  is  not 
felt,  liealth  itself  to  the  old  is  often  but  sickness  ;  so  the  world  in 


THE   ANGEL  FLYING   IN  MID-HEAVEN.  211 

earlier  years  flourished  as  it  were  in  youth,  was  robust  for  the 
muUipUcation  of  the  human  race,  fresh  in  the  health  of  its  ani- 
mals, and  abundant  in  its  productions ;  but  now  it  is  depressed 
by  its  old  age,  and  driven  on  as  it  were  to  the  verge  of  death  by 
increasing  troubles.  Place  not  your  affections  therefore  on  what 
you  see  cannot  long  endure.  Bear  in  mind  the  apostolic  direc- 
tion, love  not  the  world.  Day  before  yesterday  you  know  by  a 
sudden  whirlwind  aged  groves  were  uprooted,  houses  thrown 
down,  and  churches  swept  from  their  foundations.  How  many 
who  are  in  health  and  safety  at  evening,  and  employ  their  thoughts 
on  what  they  shall  do  on  the  morrow,  die  ere  morning  and  are 
caught  in  the  snare  of  ruin  !"^ 

"  Such  debility  from  fevers  has  spread  among  the  clergy  and 
people  of  the  city,  that  scarce  a  freedman  or  slave  remains  capa- 
ble of  any  service.  Of  the  ravages  of  the  pestilence  in  the 
neighboring  cities  we  daily  hear.  How  Africa  is  devastated  by 
disease  and  death,  as  you  are  nearer,  I  presume,  you  are  aware. 
But  they  who  come  from  the  east  announce  more  grievous  deso- 
lations. As  then  from  all  these  things  you  know  the  general 
smiting  of  the  world  approaches,  you  ought  not  to  be  too  much 
overwhelmed  by  your  personal  troubles,  but,  as  becomes  the  wise 
and  noble,  recall  every  heart  to  the  care  of  souls,  and  fear  the 
more  as  a  strict  judgment  is  near."^ 

"  Moreover,  we  wish  you  to  know  that  the  end  of  the  present 
world  is  nigh,  and  the  kingdom  of  the  saints  about  to  come, 
which  is  never  to  end-  And  as  the  end  of  the  world  approaches, 
many  things  impend  which  had  not  occurred  before,  such  as 
changes  of  the  air,  terrific  appearances  in  the  sky,  unseasonable 
tempests,  wars,  famines,  pestilences,  earthquakes, — and  these 
signals  of  the  end  of  the  world  precede  it,  that  we  may  be  found 
solicitous  for  our  souls,  looking  for  the  hour  of  death,  and  pre- 
pared for  the  coming  Judge."^ 

"  The  pestilence  and  sword  ravage  the  world,  nations  rise 
against  nations,  the  whole  earth  is  shaking,  the  yawning  ground 
is  dissolved  with  its  inluibitanls  ;  for  all  the  events  foretold  are 
accomplished,  the  king  of  pride  is  present,  and,  what  ought  not 
to  be,  an  army  of  priests  is  prepared  for  him,"'*  "  Antichrist  the 
enemy  of  the  Almighty  is  nigh.""' 

'  Gregorii  Ilomil.  i.  torn.  i.  p.  143G,  1  loD. 
'  Gregorii  Epist.  I:2.'J,  lib.  ix. ;  Indict.  2,  loin.  ii.  p.  10.32. 

'  Gregorii  Ep.  66,  lib.  xi.  ludicl.  4,  toai.  ii.  p.  1166.     Muiiy  similcr  passages  occur. 
Dialog,  lib.  iv.  c.  41,  p.  445  ;  Epist.  29,  lib.  iii.  Iiid.  xi.  and   E.  2.'),  lib.  iv.  Ind.  xii 

*  Gregorii  EpisL  lb,  lib.  v.  lad.  xiii.  p.  744.   Epist.  29,  lib.  vii.  Indict,  xv.  p.  875. 

*  Gregorii  Epist.  31,  lib.  vii.  lud.ct.  xv.  p.  879. 


212  THE  FIFTH  TRUMFET. 

Mr.  Brightman,  Mr.  Daubuz,  and  Mr.  Elliott  regard  the  an 
gel  as  symbolic,  and  interpret  his  voice,  on  the  one  hand,  of  their? 
who,  like  Vigilantius  in  the  preceding  age,  inveighed  against  the 
corruptions  of  the  church,  and  on  the  other,  of  Pope  Gregory^ 
exhibition  of  the  arrogation  by  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople  of 
the  title  of  universal  bishop,  as  a  mark  of  the  presence  or  ap- 
proach of  antichrist.  But  that  is  to  confound  the  acknowledg- 
ment and  proclamation  of  the  apostasy  of  the  church,  with  a  fore- 
warning of  the  calamities  by  which  first  the  eastern  empire  was 
to  be  overwhelmed,  and  next  the  western  governments  and  the 
man  of  sin.  The  warning  was  a  warning  of  the  calamities 
which  were  to  be  represented  by  the  symbols  of  the  trumpets 
that  were  about  to  be  blown,  and  as  the  first  two  fell  on  the  east- 
ern empire,  was  a  warning  of  judgments  by  which  that  empire 
was  to  be  overthrown.  It  is  under  the  last  trumpet  that  anti- 
christ is  to  fall. 

Mr.  Lowman,  Bishop  Newton,  Dean  Woodhouse,  and  Mr. 
Cuninghame,  regard  it  as  the  angel's  office  to  excite  attention 
merely.  Yitringa  exhibits  his  cry  as  designed  only  to  warn  the 
church  that  the  calamities  of  the  last  trumpets  were  to  be  far 
more  severe  than  those  of  the  first,,  which  is  to  divest  it  of  its 
symbolic  character. 


SECTION   XXII. 
CHAPTER     IX.    1-12. 

THE  FIFTH  TRUMPET. 


And  the  fifth  angel  sounded  ;  and  I  saw  a  star  that  had  fallen 
from  heaven  to  the  earth,  and  the  key  was  given  to  him  of  the  pit 
of  the  abyss.  And  he  opened  the  pit  of  the  abyss,  and  smoke  as- 
cended from  the  pit  as  smoke  of  a  great  furnace.  And  the  sun  was 
darkened  and  the  air  by  the  smoke  of  the  pit.  And  from  the  smoke 
locusts  went  forth  to  the  earth.  And  power  was  given  to  them  as 
the  scorpions  of  the  earth  have  power.  And  it  was  said  to  them, 
that  they  should  not  injure  the  grass  of  the  earth,  nor  any  thing  green, 
nor  any  tree,  but  only  the  men  who  have  not  the  seal  of  God  on  their 
foreheads.  And  it  was  given  to  them  that  they  should  not  slay  them, 
but  that  they  should  be  tormented  five  months.  And  their  torment 
was  like  torment  from  a  scorpion  should  it  strike  a  man.  And  in 
those  days  the  men  shall  seek  death,  and  they  shall  not  find  it,  and 


THE  FIFTH  TRUMPET.  213 

Aey  shall  desire  to  die,  and  death  shall  flee  from  them.  And  the 
figures  of  the  locusts  [were]  like  horses  prepared  for  battle,  and  on 
their  heads  [were]  as  crowns  like  gold,  and  their  faces  as  faces  of 
men,  and  they  had  hair  as  hair  of  women,  and  their  teeth  were  as 
of  lions.  And  they  had  breastplates  as  breastplates  of  iron,  and  the 
sound  of  their  wings  [was]  as  the  sound  of  many  chariots  of  horses 
rushing  to  battle.  And  they  had  tails  like  scorpions,  and  stings  v/ere 
in  their  tails.  And  their  power  [is]  to  injure  the  men  five  months. 
They  have  over  them  a  king,  the  angel  of  the  abyss,  whose  name  in 
Hebrew  is  Abaddon,  and  in  the  Greek  he  has  the  name  the  Destroyer. 
The  first  woe  is  passed.  Behold,  there  yet  come  two  woes  after  these. 

The  meteor  had  fallen  to  the  earth  when  first  seen  by  the 
apostle.  Its  head,  it  would  seem,  was  an  intelligent  being,  to 
whom  the  key  of  a  bottomless  recess  was  given  by  its  porter  or 
prince.  As  the  meteor  which  fell  on  the  rivers  and  fountains 
denoted  a  vast  army  of  Hunns,  so  this  doubtless  represents  a 
body  of  armed  men  with  a  slaughtering  and  ruthless  leader.  As 
the  former  extended  over  a  surface  in  which  a  third  of  the  rivers 
of  the  empire  had  their  origin,  it  indicated  a  proportional  vast- 
ness  of  that  Scythian  host.  But  as  the  head  of  the  latter  Avas 
an  individual,  and  bore  doubtless  a  due  proportion  to  its  train, 
that  may  be  regarded  as  an  equally  clear  indication  that  it  was 
of  but  moderate  dimensions.  He  opened  the  dungeon  gate,  and 
out  of  the  smoke  which  ascended  and.  filled  the  atmosphere,  lo- 
custs went  forth  to  the  earth, — agents  of  a  difierent  class,  or  hav- 
ing a  dilferent  office  from  those  constituting  the  meteor.  Their 
figures  were  like  horses  caparisoned  for  battle.  They  had  faces 
as  of  men,  hair  as  of  women,  and  teeth  as  of  lions.  They  had 
on  their  heads  as  it  were  crowns  like  gold,  and  had  breastplates 
as  iron  breastplates,  and  such  was  their  innumerable  multitude 
that  the  sound  of  their  wings  was  like  the  sound  of  many  chari- 
ots of  horses  rushing  to  battle.  A  power  or  nature  was  given 
to  them  like  that  of  the  scorpions  of  the  earth,  and  they  were 
directed  not  to  injure  the  grass,  crops,  or  trees,  but  only  the  men 
who  liad  not  the  seal  of  God  on  their  foreheads,  and  not  by 
slaughter,  but  by  a  scorpion  torment.  They  were  to  exercise 
their  power  during  five  months,  the  usual  period  of  locusts,  and 
in  such  a  form  as  to  render  lite  to  the  tortured  insupportable. 

As  the  locusts  had  life,  they  were  by  the  laws  of  symbolization 
representatives  of  intelligent  beings  ;  and  as  they  were  of  both 
sexes,  and  propagated  their  kind,  tiiey  were  representatives  of 
human  beings,  the  only  species  of  intelligences  on  earth  of  that 
oature,  and  a  body  embracing  both  sexes  and  all  ages,  as  a  swarm 


214  THE  FIFTH  TRUMPET. 

of  locusts  embraces  all  the  varieties  of  age,  size,  and  nature 
that  belong  to  that  species  ;  and  a  body  obviously  from  the  de- 
scription of  a  usurping,  crafty,  sensual,  voracious,  and  unpitying 
nature,  that  should  go  forth  from  their  native  seat  into  other  lands, 
and  be  therefore  a  warlike  and  invading  nation.  That  is  indica- 
ted also  by  their  vast  numbers,  and  the  great  power  they  were 
to  exercise  as  conquerors. 

As  they  who  have  the  seal  of  God  on  their  foreheads  are  his 
true  people,  rendered  visibly  such,  in  contradistinction  from 
apostates  who  sanction  the  usurpation  of  his  rights  by  creatures, 
as  is  shown  in  the  seventh  and  fourteenth  chapters,  the  men  who 
have  not  the  seal  of  God  on  their  foreheads,  are  apostates,  who 
ascribe  the  prerogatives  of  God  to  creatures,  and  pay  to  them 
the  homage  that  is  due  only  to  him. 

What  warrior  host,  then,  uniting  in  itself  these  peculiar  and 
terrible  characters,  appeared  on  the  apocalyptic  earth  next  after 
the  fall  of  the  western  empire,  and  tortured  through  a  long  pe- 
riod an  apostate  church  ?  An  exact  and  conspicuous  correspond- 
ence is  presented  by  the  Saracens.  Maiiomet  and  his  small  band 
of  associates  fled  from  Mecca  to  Medina,  like  a  meteor  that  falls 
from  the  region  where  it  is  generated  to  the  earth.  He  there  re- 
ceived liberty  to  unfold  and  propagate  his  doctrines,  and  soon 
diffused  them  through  Arabia  ;  and  they  were  a  smoke  from  the 
abyss  instead  of  an  effulgence  from  the  sun.  He  generated  by 
them'in  his  followers  that  locust  disposition  by  which  they  were 
prompted  to  go  forth  from  their  native  seat  to  other  lands,  gave 
them  their  scorpion  power,  enjoined  it  as  their  office  to  torture 
idolaters,  and  rendered  them  in  that  respect  different  from  those 
who  formed  his  meteor  train,  whose  aim  was  to  sustain  him  as  a 
teacher  merely,  not  like  his  scorpion  hordes,  to  conquer  other 
lands,  torture  apostates,  and  extend  his  sway  as  a  king.  It  was 
not  until  after  the  promulgation  of  his  first  doctrines,  the  organ- 
ization of  his  followers  at  Medina,  and  the  generation  of  the 
first  swarm  of  locusts,  that  he  added  the  directions  that  respect 
their  conquests.*  All  the  subordinate  characteristics  were  uni- 
ted in  them  also.  Their  crowns,  their  faces,  their  hair,  their 
teeth,  tiieir  breastplates,  were  symbolic  of  their  dispositions,  or 
the  characteristics  of  their  agency,  rather  than  descriptive  of  their 
persons,  and  denoted  traits  by  which  the  Saracens  were  most 
conspicuously  marked,  a  daring  pretence  to  right,  cunning,  effem- 
inatencss,  voracity,  and  inscnsibihty  to  the  miseries  of  their  vic- 
tims.    They  fuUilled  their  office  as   torturers   on  the    eastern 

'  Sale's  Prelim.  Discourse  to  the  Koran,  sect.  Sj  pp.  67,  6S. 


THE  FIFTH  TRUMPET.  215 

Roman  empire  chiefly.  Mahomet  remained  their  lawgiver  and 
guide  through  their  whole  period,  and  they  continued  their  scor- 
pion career  until  they  had  run  the  usual  course  of  conquerors,  as 
locusts  continue  while  life  lasts  to  devour  the  grass  and  the  trees. 
In  like  manner  the  nations,  conquered  or  overrun  by  the  Sara- 
cens, were  such  as  the  passage  designates.  The  churches  of 
Babylonia,  Syria,  Egypt,  Asia  Minor,  Northern  Africa,  Spain, 
and  the  Mediterranean  islands,  had  sanctioned  the  arrogation  of 
the  rights  of  God  by  civil  and  ecclesiastical  rulers,  turned  to  the 
open  and  zealous  worship  of  relics,  saints,  and  images,  and  sunk 
to  the  lowest  depths  of  profligacy  and  debasement. 

There  is  no  other  body  of  men  in  whom  the  conditions  of  the 
symbol  meet.  Grotius,  Dr.  Hammond,  and  Eichhorn  interpret 
the  locusts  of  the  Zealots  who  spread  slaughter  and  devastation 
through  Judea  a  short  time  previous  to  the  overthrow  of  Jerusa- 
lem. But  they  present  none  of  the  required  correspondences. 
They  were  not  only  five  centuries  earlier  than  the  period  deno- 
ted by  the  symbol,  but  preceded  near  thirty  years  the  date  of 
the  Revelation.  They  were  not  generated  as  were  the  locusts 
in  a  diflerent  land  from  that  in  which  they  exercised  their  cruel- 
ties, but  were  natives  of  Judea  and  Galilee.  Those  whom  they 
tortured  had  not  sanctioned  the  usurpations  by  the  emperors  of 
authority  over  the  faith  and  worship  of  the  church,  but  were  un- 
believing Jews.  They  were  not  united  under  a  single  chieftain, 
were  not  preceded  by  a  smoke  from  the  abyss,  nor  meteor  head, 
nor  did  they  continue  their  career  through  a  period  proportional 
to  that  which  nations  usually  run  from  conquest  to  indolence  and 
luxury,  and  from  luxury  to  decay. 

Mr.  Brightman  interprets  the  star  both  of  Mahomet  and  the 
pope,  and  the  locusts  both  of  the  Saracens  and  the  Roman 
priests  and  monks.  But  it  is  wholly  arbitrary  and  inconsistent 
with  a  certainty  of  meaning,  to  assume  that  the  same  symbol 
may  denote  two  wholly  distinct  classes  of  agents  and  events.  It 
is  to  set  aside  analogy  to  expound  it  as  denoting  classes  of  agents 
of  diflerent  departments  of  life,  one  military,  the  other  religious  ; 
one  invading  and  devastating  a  foreign  country,  the  other  exert- 
ing their  destructive  influence  only  in  their  own. 

Cocceius  regarded  the  star  as  symbolizing  the  pope,  and  its 
dejection  as  denoting  his  fall  from  authority  at  the  Reformation. 
But  the  fail  of  the  star  denotes  the  procedure  of  the  agent  whom 
it  symbolizes  to  the  scene  of  his  agency,  not  his  deprivation  of 
power,  nor  the  diminution  of  his  influence,  lie  also  regarded 
the  locusts  as   symbolizing  the   Romish  clergy  of  that  period. 


216  THE  FIFTH  TRUMPET. 

But  they  exhibit  none  of  the  requisite  analogies.  They  were  not 
the  offspring  of  a  recent  and  pecuhar  smoke  from  the  abyss.  The 
darkness  in  which  they  were  generated  had  long  brooded  over 
the  Roman  empire.  Some  of  the  monkish  orders  sprang  indeed 
in  a  degree  from  a  decrease  of  that  darkness  and  a  wish  to  rem- 
edy its  intolerable  evils,  and  were  far  less  corrupt  and  pernicious 
in  their  agency  at  their  origin,  than  after  having  risen  to  num- 
bers, popularity,  and  wealth.  They  were  not  foreigners,  but 
exerted  their  agency  in  the  scenes  of  their  birth  and  education. 
They  were  not  hostile  to  the  assumption  of  authority  over  the 
faith  and  worship  of  the  church  by  civil  and  ecclesiastical  rulers, 
nor  to  the  homage  of  idols,  nor  were  they  torturers  of  those  who 
had  apostatized,  but,  instead,  were  the  advocates  of  those  usurpa- 
tions, the  votaries  of  relic  and  saint  worship,  and  the  patrons  of 
idolatry.  They  were  of  but  one  sex.  But  when  a  species  of 
creatures  like  locusts,  embracing  both  sexes,  is  used  as  a  symbol, 
analogy  requires  that  the  agents  symbolized  should  also  embrace 
both  sexes,  and  that  condition  was  peculiarly  and  conspicuously 
fulfilled  in  the  Saracens,  who  were  usually  attended  by  many  of 
their  women  and  families  in  their  warlike  expeditions,  and  follow- 
ed in  their  conquests  by  a  crowd  of  emigrants,  who  hastened  to 
grasp  the  wealth  and  enslave  the  persons  of  the  vanquished. 

There  is  a  like  want  of  correspondence  in  the  Gnostics,  to 
whom  Dean  Woodiiouse  refers  the  symbol.  Their  false  doctrines 
were  not  originated  by  a  single  chief,  but  were  invented  by  sev- 
eral persons,  and  at  distant  periods.  They  were  not  hostile  to 
the  worship  of  imaginary  deities,  but  taught  the  existence  of  an 
infinite  multitude,  and  proposed  them  as  objects  of  homage. 
They  were  the  first  apostates,  and  authors  of  the  first  apostasy 
from  the  truths  of  the  gospel,  not  torturers  of  those  who  had  pre- 
viously apostatized.  They  were  not  foreigners,  but  exercised 
their  agency  on  those  among  whom  they  had  their  birth  and  edu- 
cation. They  began  their  career  in  the  first  century,  reached 
their  largest  diffusion  ere  the  end  of  the  second,  and  rapidly  de- 
clined through  the  third  ;^  but  the  period  of  this  symbol  is  un- 
doubtedly after  the  fall  of  the  western  empire  in  the  fifth. 

Vitringa  interprets  it  of  the  northern  nations  who  devastated 
Italy  during  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  from  the  invasion  un- 
der Alaric  to  the  capture  of  Rome  by  Tolila.  But  they  were  not 
guided  by  a  single  chief.  They  were  not  generated  by  a  smoke 
released  by  their  leader  from  the  bottomless  abyss.  They  were 
not  a  new  and  peculiar  species  of  warriors.      The  same  nations 

^  Eusebii  Hist.  Eocl.  lib.  iii.  c.  3:2. 


THE    FIFTH    TRUMPET.  217 

had  repeatedly  invaded  the  empire  before,  and  devastated  the 
provinces  on  the  Danube  and  the  Rhine.  The  invasions  of  Ita- 
ly during  that  period  and  overthrow  of  the  western  empire,  are 
represented,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  symbols  of  the  first  four 
trumpets,  and  cannot,  therefore,  be  supposed  to  be  again  indica- 
ted by  this. 

Mr.  Mede,  Dr.  More,  Mr.  Daubuz,  Mr.  Jurieu,  ]\Ir.  Whiston, 
Mr.  Lowman,  Bishop  Newton,  Mr.  Faber,  Mr.  Cuninghame,  Mr. 
Keith,  Mr.  Elliott,  and  others,  unite  in  interpreting  it  of  the  Sar- 
acens, though  they  differ  in  their  construction  of  its  subordinate 
parts.  Mr.  Mede,  Mr.  Whiston,  and  Dean  Woodhouse  regard 
Satan  as  the  star.  But  that  is  to  make  Mahomet  one  of  the  lo- 
custs instead  of  their  king,  and  to  exhibit  him  as  generated  in  the 
smoke  emitted  from  the  pit,  instead  of  the  agent  who  gave  egress 
lo  that  smoke.  Mr.  Cuninghame  interprets  the  star  of  the  pope, 
and  the  smoke  of  the  ignorance,  error,  superstition,  and  idolatry 
of  the  churches  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries.  But  that  is  to 
confound  the  smoke  in  which  the  locusts  were  generated,  with 
the  crimes  of  those  whom  it  was  their  office  to  torment.  Apos- 
tasy to  the  homage  of  creatures  was  the  characteristic  of  the  men 
who  had  not  the  mark  of  God  on  their  foreheads,  and  the  reason 
of  their  subjection  to  the  scorpion  torture  of  the  locusts.  But  the 
locusts  themselves  were  not  generated  in  that  superstition  and 
creature-homage.  The  Saracens  were  not  apostates  from  Chris- 
tianity, but  generally  at  least,  worshippers  of  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars  ;^  nor  was  the  system  of  Mahomet  formed  like  that  of  the 
false  prophet  of  Rome  by  a  mere  perversion  of  the  gospel,  or  in- 
fusion into  it  of  contradictory  ingredients,  but  was  wholly  new,  a 
sheer  and  independent  fabrication,  and  designed  to  supersede 
alike  paganism,  Judaism,  and  Christianity.^  His  scheme  was 
all  drawn  from  the  abyss,  and  employed  in  intercepting  the  sun, 
not  in  any  degree  like  popery,  in  giving  a  new  tinge  and  refrac- 
tion to  its  rays,  and  exhibiting  them  as  emanations  from  other  ob- 
jects. 

It  is  to  confound  the  region  also  where  the  smoke  brooded,  with 
the  exterior  earth  to  which  the  locusts  proceeded  on  entering  on 
their  office  of  torture.  That  smoke  was  confined  to  the  scene  in 
which  they  were  generated,  not  extended  over  the  vast  field  of 
their  conquests.  While  they  remained  in  that  scene  they  were 
hidden.  It  was  not  till  they  emerged  from  it,  that  they  became 
visible.  The  denseness  of  the  cloud  from  the  abyss,  denotes  not 
only  the  utter  erroneousness  of  his  doctrine,  but  the  absoluteness 

•  Sale's  Prelim.  Discourse,  sect.  i.  p.  19-29.  "  Ibid.  s.  2,  pp.  53, 54. 

23 


218  THE    FIFTH    TRUMPET. 

also  with  which  it  enveloped  his  followers,  excluding  every  direct 
ray  from  heaven,  and  every  refraction  from  surrounding  objects  ; 
a  most  conspicuous  peculiarity  of  the  disciples  of  Mahomet,  who 
entertain  no  doubts  whatever  of  the  propriety  of  their  own  scheme, 
never  modify  it  by  the  adoption  of  doctrines  from  others,  nor  ad- 
mit the  possibility  of  a  higher  degree  of  truth  in  any  antagonist 
system. 

Finally,  the  ignorance,  the  errors,  the  superstition,  and  the 
creature-worship  of  the  eastern  churches,  which  were  the  chief 
victims  of  the  Saracen  scourge,  were  not  the  offspring  of  the  pa- 
pacy, but  originated  with  those  churches  themselves,  and  long 
anterior  to  the  supremacy  of  the  pope.  No  facts  of  history  are 
more  indisputable  and  conspicuous,  than  that  the  false  doctrines, 
superstition,  ambitious  rivalries,  and  apostasy  to  creature-worship 
of  the  Egyptian,  Syrian,  and  Greek  churches,  sprung  up  among 
themselves,  and  were  transplanted  thence  to  the  western  church- 
es, not  borrowed  from  earlier  apostates  of  Italy.  Gnosticism  in 
all  its  numerous  forms,  the  fabrication  of  false  gospels  and  lying 
legends,  the  institution  of  new  orders  of  ministers  and  a  new  gov- 
ernment of  the  church,  asceticism,  monkery,  Sabellianism,  Arian- 
ism,  Appolinarianism,  Eutychianism,  Eunomianism,  all  had  their 
origin  tlicre,  and  spread  thence  to  other  regions  ;  and  the  hom- 
age of  relics  and  martyrs,  the  adoration  of  the  cross,  the  invoca- 
tion of  saints,  the  worship  of  idols,  if  not  first  introduced  at  the 
east,  sprung  up  there  at  least  as  early  and  flourished  as  vigorous- 
ly as  at  the  west.  Of  all  the  infinite  swarm  indeed  of  doctrinal 
errorists  of  the  first  six  centuries,  Pelagius  was  the  only  one  of 
importance  who  originated  at  the  west,  and  he  was  opposed  in  a 
degree  by  the  cotemporary  popes,  and  many  of  the  western  clergy. 
Many  of  those  errors  and  superstitions  had  prevailed  for  genera 
tions  before  the  pope  attained  the  rank  of  supreme  bishop  in  the 
western  kingdoms,  and  he  never  enjoyed  a  supremacy  over  the 
east.  The  patriarchs  of  Alexandria,  Antioch,  Jerusalem,  and 
Constantinople,  were  co-ordinate  with  the  patriarch  of  Rome,  and 
ever  jealous  of  his  ambition. 

The  objections  offered  to  this  application  of  the  symbol  are 
founded  on  misapprehension.  Dean  Woodhouse  deems  it  a  proof 
that  the  being  who  received  the  key  of  the  pit  cannot  have  been 
Mahomet,  that  he  was  a  star,  which  he  regards  as  the  symbol  of 
a  distinguished  religious  teacher  ;  and  that  he  fell  from  heaven, 
which  he  imagines  an  indication  of  apostasy.  But  those  assump- 
tions are  without  authority.  It  is  the  office  indeed  of  a  fixed  stai 
to  give  liglit,  but  not  of  a  meteor  generated  in  the  atmosphere^ 


THE  FIFTH    TRUMPET.  219 

which  but  gleams  for  a  moment  and  then  explodes  and  sinks  to 
the  earth.  This  star  was  of  the  latter  kind,  manifestly  from  the 
fact  that  it  had  fallen — not  a  sun  of  some  other  system,  like  the 
twinkling  orbs  that  stud  our  evening  sky ;  and  its  descent  to  the 
earth  simply  denotes  its  violent  migration  or  dejection  from  its 
original  station  to  a  new  scene  of  agency,  precisely  as  the  descent 
of  the  rain,  hail,  and  lightning  following  the  first  trumpet,  denotes 
a  violent  precipitation  into  the  empire  of  the  agents  whom  they 
represent ;  and  the  dejection  of  the  meteor  embittering  the  foun- 
tains and  streams,  the  headlong  rush  frojn  a  distance  of  the  de- 
structive host  which  that  body  symbolized. 

It  is  regarded  by  others  as  a  proof  that  Mahomet  is  not  among 
the  agents  denoted  by  the  star,  that  he  had  not  filled  any  conspic- 
uous station  either  religious  or  civil,  anterior  to  his  assumption 
of  the  prophetic  office  and  collection  of  a  small  band  of  disciples 
at  Mecca.  But  no  such  previous  rank  was  requisite  to  consti- 
tute him  a  meteor.  He  became  such  by  the  generation  of  his 
religious  system,  and  gathered  a  train  proportional  to  his  own  di- 
mensions, by  the  conversion  of  the  few  relatives  and  associates 
who  accompanied  him  on  his  ejection  from  Mecca.  The  descent 
of  the  meteor  to  the  earth  was  a  fit  representative  of  his  flight 
from  that  city  to  Medina.  His  opening  the  pit  and  emission  of 
the  smoke  into  the  atmosphere,  denote  the  promulgation  of  his 
doctrines  at  Medina  ;  and  its  brooding  on  the  surface  and  envel- 
oping every  object  where  it  spread,  the  absoluteness  with  which 
his  imposture  took  possession  of  the  people  and  subjected  them 
to  his  dominion. 

Most  commentators  have  regarded  the  five  months  or  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  days  during  which  the  locusts  were  to  exercise 
their  power,  as  denoting  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ;  and  have 
perplexed  themselves  with  endeavors  to  discern  epochs  in  their 
history  to  verify  that  construction.  That  interpretation,  however, 
is  not  according  to  analogy.  The  period  was  to  bear  such  a  pro- 
portion to  the  nature  of  a  conquering  nation,  passing  the  usual 
course  from  success  to  luxury  and  from  luxury  to  decay,  as  five 
months  bear  to  the  usual  life  of  locusts.  And  that  career  the 
Saracens  had  actually  run,  anterior  to  the  overthrow  of  their  em- 
pire by  the  Turks.  Nor  is  the  period  from  which  those  inter- 
preters date  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  in  accordance  with 
the  symbol.  The  agency  of  the  locusts  commenced  at  their 
emergence  from  the  smoke  and  flight  to  the  adjacent  earth,  or 
first  incursion  into  Syria  in  the  year  629  or  630.'  But  those  wri- 

'  Gibbon's  Hist.  chap.  i. 


220  THE    FIFTH    TRUMPET. 

ters  refer  the  commencemciit  of  the  five  montiis  to  Mahomet's 
first  assumption  of  the  prophetic  office  in  612,  anterior  to  the  flight 
to  Medina  and  the  generation  of  the  locusts.  The  long  continu- 
ance of  their  empire,  therefore,  and  the  impossibility  of  measur- 
ing its  chief  periods  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  are  no  proofs, 
as  Dean  Woodhouse  and  oihers  regard  them,  that  the  Saracens 
are  not  the  agents  denoted  by  the  symbol. 

It  is  also  thought  by  Dean  Woodhouse  to  be  an  objection  to 
this  application  of  the  symbol,  that  the  locusts  were  not  to  injure 
the  grass,  nor  any  thing  green,  nor  the  trees,  but  only  the  men 
who  had  not  the  seal  of  God  on  their  foreheads.  This  he  first 
assumes  implies  that  none  of  the  sealed  were  to  suffer  by  their 
agency  ;  next,  that  therefore  their  agency  was  to  be  of  a  nature 
which  the  sealed  would  naturally  resist  or  escape,  and  thence 
that  it  must  have  been  merely  moral,  not  physical,  like  that  of 
the  Saracens,  who  slaughtered  and  tortured,  without  distinction 
of  age,  sex,  rank,  or  cliaracter,  whoever  opposed  their  career. 
But  those  assumptions  are  unauthorized.  That  direction  was 
doubtless  descriptive  not  only  of  the  character  of  those  whom 
they  were  to  torment,  and  of  the  policy  they  were  to  pursue  to- 
wards them,  but  also  of  the  pretences  under  which  they  were 
to  veil  the  ambition  from  which  their  wars  were  to  spring,  and 
the  cruel  tyranny  they  were  to  exercise  over  those  whom  they 
conquered.  Their  apparent  aims  were  to  differ  from  those  of 
ordinary  warriors.  They  were  not  ostensibly  to  be  prompted 
by  desire  of  power,  honor,  wealth,  or  the  gratification  of  passion, 
but  were  to  profess  themselves  to  be  the  special  ministers  of 
the  Almighty,  to  represent  it  as  their  sole  object  to  fulfil  his  wiA 
in  the  dissemination  of  a  new  religion  he  had  revealed,  and  the 
extirpation  of  false  worships,  especially  idolatry,  and  to  make 
that  the  reason  and  justification  of  their  unprovoked  attacks,  their 
cruel  slaughters,  and  lawless  devastations ;  but  under  those 
hypocritical  and  impious  pretences,  were  to  be  at  liberty  to  in- 
dulge their  malignant  and  brutal  passions  without  reserve.  Such 
indisputably  was  the  course  they  pursued.  They  carried  on  all 
their  wars  under  the  pretence  of  religion,  but  made  their  victo- 
ries subserve,  beyond  almost  any  other  nation  in  the  long  succes- 
sion of  Asiatic  conquerors,  a  lawless  appetite  and  merciless 
ferocity. 

But  the  direction  was  undoubtedly  prophetic  also  both  of  the 
character  of  those  whom  they  were  to  torture,  and  of  the  policy 
they  were  to  pursue  towards  them,  and  in  each  relation  had  a 
signal  fulfilment  in  the  career  of  the  Saracens.     The  term  "  the 


THE  SIXTH  TRUMPKT.  221 

men"  whom  they  were  to  injure,  whatever  application  may  be 
made  of  the  symbol,  cannot  be  supposed  to  denote  only  persons 
of  mature  age.  If,  as  Dean  Woodhouse  assumes,  the  agents 
represented  by  the  locusts  were  false  teachers,  their  influence 
cannot  have  been  limited  to  adults.  It  is  impossible  that  what 
is  publicly  and  promiscuously  taught,  should  not  be  communica- 
ted to  youth  and  children  as  well  as  to  adults.  Such  notoriously 
was  the  diffusion  of  the  Gnostic  errors,  which  he  regards  as 
foreshown  by  the  symbol.  The  phrase,  the  men  that  have  not 
the  mark  of  God  on  their  foreheads,  denotes  therefore  apostates 
promiscuously,  without  distinction  of  age,  superstitious  churches, 
communities,  nations  ;  and  such  churches  and  communities  in 
contradistinction,  not  to  individuals,  but  to  churches  of  the  op- 
posite character.  And  such  most  conspicuously  were  the  church- 
es and  nations  overrun  and  tortured  by  the  Saracens,  through 
their  long  career.  That  was  their  prevalent  character.  The  ex- 
ceptions, if  there  were  any,  were  but  of  individuals,  and  those 
midoubtedly  very  rare  and  very  obscure.  No  churches  probably 
ever  existed  that  were  more  generally  corrupt.  That  universal- 
ity of  the  characteristic,  therefore,  is  all  that  the  verification  of 
the  prophecy  requires.  It  was  no  violation  of  its  meaning,  if 
some  few  who  were  the  true  people  of  God  shared  in  the  mis- 
eries of  the  Saracen  woe  ;  or  were  among  the  victims  of  theii 
swords. 


SECTION  XXIII. 

CHAPTER    IX.    13-21. 

THE    SIXTH    TRUMPET. 


And  the  sixth  angel  sounded  ;  and  I  heard  one  voice  from  the  four 
horns  of  the  golden  altar  which  was  before  God,  saying  to  the  sixth 
angel  who  held  the  trumpet,  Loose  the  four  angels  who  have  been 
bound  at  the  great  river  Euphrates.  And  the  four  angels  were 
loosed  who  had  been  prepared  fur  the  hour,  and  day,  and  month,  and 
year,  that  they  might  slay  a  third  of  the  men.  And  the  number  of 
the  armies  of  the  cavalry  [was]  two  myriads  of  myriads.  I  heard 
the  number  of  them.  And  thus  I  saw  the  horses  in  the  vision,  and 
those  who  sat  on  them,  having  breastplates,  fiery,  hyacinthine,  and 
sulphurous.  And  the  heads  of  the  horses  [were]  as  heads  of  hons, 
and  from  their  mouth  proceeded  fire,  and  smoke,  and  sulphur.  By 
those  three  plagues  the  third  of  the  men  were   slain,  by  the  fire, 


222  THE   SIXTH  TRUMPET. 

and  the  smoke,  and  the  sulphur,  which  proceeded  from  their  mouths. 
For  the  power  of  the  horses  is  in  their  mouth  and  in  their  tails  ;  for 
their  tails  [are]  like  serpents  having  heads,  and  with  them  they  in- 
jure. And  the  rest  of  the  men  who  were  not  slain  by  those  plagues, 
changed  not  from  the  works  of  their  hands,  that  they  should  not 
worship  the  demons,  and  the  idols  of  gold  and  silver,  and  brass  and 
stone,  and  wood,  which  can  neither  see,  nor  hear,  nor  walk,  and 
they  reformed  not  from  their  murders,  nor  from  their  sorceries,  nor 
from  their  fornication,  nor  from  their  thefts. 

The  one  voice  from  the  four  horns  of  the  golden  altar,  was 
either  a  joint  voice,  formed  by  voices  from  the  four  horns  utter- 
ing in  harmon}'-  the  command  to  loose  the  angels  at  the  Eu- 
phrates ;  or  a  similar  voice  uttering  successively  from  each  a 
command  to  loose  one  of  the  angels. 

The  golden  altar  was  that  on  which  incense  was  offered  with 
the  prayers  of  the  saints,  and  was  a  symbol  of  the  cross,  the  in- 
strument of  Christ's  death,  by  which  men  have  access  to  God, 
and  obtain  pardon  and  acceptance.  The  cry  from  the  horns  of 
that  altar  denoted  accordingly  a  connection  of  the  judgments 
those  symbolized  by  tiie  angels  were  to  inflict,  with  the  sacrifice 
of  Christ,  and  doubtless  that  his  honor  as  mediator  required  vin- 
dication, by  an  infliction  of  the  avenging  judgments  which  the 
symbol  foresiiows  on  those  who  had  set  him  aside,  and  substitu- 
ted others  in  his  place.  The  Euphrates  was  doubtless  visible 
to  the  apostle,  and  not  improbably  passed,  or  apparently  beneatii 
the  station  of  the  sixth  angel.  The  four  angels  were  leaders  of 
bodies  of  men,  and  doubtless  of  four  armies,  that  with  their  suc- 
cessors constituted  the  two  myriads  of  myriads.  The  release  of 
the  angels  from  bonds  at  the  Euphrates,  simply  denotes  the  re- 
moval of  obstacles  to  their  invasion  of  the  apocalyptic  earth. 
The  analogy  is  drawn  doubtless  from  the  relations  of  the  Eu- 
phrates to  ancient  Babylon,  and  the  access  which  Cyrus  and  his 
troops  gained  to  that  idolatrous  capital  by  the  diversion  of  the 
river  from  its  channel.  Some  barrier  resembling  that,  not  a  mere 
indisposition,  was  to  be  removed  in  order  to  their  incursion  into 
the  empire  ;  as  is  indicated  by  the  representation  that  they  had 
been  prepared  for  the  hour,  and  day,  and  month,  and  year. 
This  is,  indeed,  usually  regarded  as  denoting  the  period  during 
which  they  were  to  exercise  their  office  as  slaughterers  of  the 
idolatrous  ;  but  that  is  not  the  obvious  import  of  the  language, 
nor  is  the  period  it  is  deemed  to  express,  the  measure  of  their 
career.  If  the  one  voice  was  a  similar  voice  uttered  in  succes- 
sion from  each  of  the  four  horns,  and  commanded  an  angel  to 


THE   SIXTH  TRUMPET  223 

be  loosed,  it  doubtless  denotes  that  they  were  to  be  loosed  suc- 
cessively. 

The  four  angels  that  were  loosed,  were  indisputably  the  lead- 
ers of  the  cavalry  armies,  anterior  to  their  invasion  of  the  em- 
pire, not  their  successors,  who  commanded  the  descendants  of 
those  armies  in  subsequent  centuries,  and  after  their  conquests. 
Those  successors  were  within  the  empire,  not  without ;  in  pos- 
session of  the  territories  they  desired,  not  debarred  from  them, 
and  needed  therefore  no  release  from  restraint  at  the  river  Eu- 
phrates. It  were  solecistical  indeed  to  speak  of  those  wdio 
planned  and  led  the  invasions,  as  prepared  for  the  agency  of 
their  successors  through  a  period  of  many  centuries.  The  pre- 
paration of  the  angels  therefore  for  the  hour,  and  day,  and  month, 
and  year,  was  a  preparation  of  the  leaders  to  invade  the  empire 
the  moment  obstacles  that  had  before  been  insuperable  were  re- 
moved, as  Cyrus  and  his  army  entered  Babylon  the  moment  the 
diversion  of  the  waters  of  the  Euphrates  allowed  them  to  pass 
beneath  the  walls. 

The  breastplates  of  the  horsemen,  of  the  color  of  fire,  hya- 
cinth, and  sulphur,  denote  their  vehement  and  aggressive  spirit, 
and  disposition  to  slaughter  and  devastation.  The  horses,  how- 
ever, not  the  horsemen,  were  the  agents  of  destruction.  Their 
heads  were  as  lions,  and  from  their  mouths  issued  fire,  smoke, 
and  sulphur,  with  which  they  slew  the  third  of  the  men  ;  for 
their  power  was  in  their  mouth  and  in  their  tails.  Their  heads 
were  the  engines  of  death ;  their  tails,  which  were  like  serpents 
having  heads,  the  instruments  of  torture  ;  and  denote  that  they 
were  to  be  terrific,  irresistible,  and  most  destructive  assailants 
on  the  one  hand,  and  to  subject  those  who  should  escape  slaughter 
to  a  horrible  form  of  suffering  on  the  other. 

The  nations  whom  they  were  to  scourge  with  those  plagues, 
were  to  be  worshippers  of  demons  and  idols  of  gold,  and  silver, 
and  brass,  and  stone,  and  wood ;  and  those  of  them  who  Avere 
to  escape  destruction,  were  to  continue  wholly  unreformed,  and 
be  distinguished  for  atrocious  crimes  towards  one  another,  as  well 
as  daring  impiety  towards  God. 

The  chief  characteristics  of  these  symbolic  agents  thus  are, 
that  they  originated  without  the  apocalj^ptic  earth,  that  they 
were  warriors,  that  they  formed  four  armies  or  divisions,  that 
they  with  their  descendants  were  innumerable,  that  they  were  to 
those  whom  they  assailed  what  fire,  and  smoke,  and  sulphur  are 
to  those  who  are  enveloped  by  them,  that  their  invasion  of  the 
empire  was  the  consequence  of  previous  victories,  or  other  events 


224  THE  SIXTH  TRUMPET. 

immediately  preceding,  which  gave  the  requisite  power  to  the 
leaders,  that  they  slaughtered  immense  multitudes,  that  they 
were  serpents  to  those  whom  they  allowed  to  survive,  that  the 
nations  whom  they  invaded  were  apostates  from  Christianity  to 
demon  and  idol  worship,  and  that  they  remained  unreformed  by 
their  sufferings.  And  all  these  characteristics  meet  in  the  Tar- 
tar tribes  who  invaded  the  eastern  Roman  empire  from  the  elev- 
enth to  the  fifteenth  century.  They  came  from  without  the 
apoca]3'ptic  earth  ;  they  were  of  four  different  races  or  divisions 
— the  Seljukians,  the  Moguls  under  the  successors  of  Gengis- 
Khan,  the  Ottomans,  and  the  Moguls  under  Tamerlane.  Their 
entrance  into  the  empire  was  preceded  by  the  conquest  of  inter 
mediate  enemies  and  other  events,  which  gave  the  chiefs  the 
requisite  power.  They  and  their  descendants  Avho  have  acted 
and  are  to  act  the  part  of  slaughterers  and  tormentors  through 
the  whole  period  of  the  woe  which  they  inflict,  who  are  denoted 
by  the  two  myriads  of  myriads,  are  innumerable  in  multitude. 
They  were  objects  of  terror  beyond  any  other  conquerors,  alike 
to  those  whom  they  assailed  and  those  whom  they  threatened  ; 
and,  like  burning  whirlwinds,  spread  death  and  devastation 
through  the  scenes  of  their  conquests.  They  tortured  with 
a  serpent-venom  those  whom  they  subjected  to  their  dominion  ; 
and  the  nations  whom  they  overrun  were  apostates  to  idolatry, 
and  remained  unreformed  by  their  miseries. 

And  these  peculiarities  meet  in  those  Tartar  tribes  alone. 
There  have  been  no  other  invaders  of  the  eastern  empire  since 
the  Saracens,  nor  of  the  western  since  the  Goths,  according  in 
any  degree  with  the  conditions  of  the  symbol.  And  they  alone 
verify  the  revelation  made  in  a  subsequent  vision,  that  the  second 
woe  is  to  continue  till  near  the  time  of  the  seventh  trumpet.  After 
the  slaughter  and  resurrection  of  the  witnesses,  the  earthquake 
and  the  fall  of  the  tenth  of  the  city,  it  was  announced,  the  sec- 
ond woe  has  passed,  behold,  the  third  woe  comes  quickly,  and  the 
seventh  angel  sounded.  The  agents  of  the  second  woe  are  un- 
doubtedly therefore  to  continue  their  office  till  near  the  period 
of  the  seventh  trumpet.  It  is  equally  obvious  that  the  great 
agents  symbolized  in  the  vision  of  the  tenth  chapter  and  the  lat- 
ter part  of  the  eleventh,  belong  also  to  the  period  of  the  second 
woe.  They  certainly  precede  the  seventh  trumpet.  They  as 
certainly  follow  the  sixth.  The  angel  who,  descending,  set  his 
right  foot  on  the  sea  and  his  left  on  the  land,  represents,  it  will 
be  shown  in  the  exposition  of  the  tenth  chapter,  the  Reformers 
of  the  sixteenth  century      The  slaughter  of  the  witnesses,  and 


THE  SIXTH  TRUMPET  225 

the  earthquake,  and  fall  of  the  tenth  of  the  city,  will  be  shown, 
in  the  explanation  of  the  eleventh  chapter,  to  be  yet  future.  The 
agents  of  the  second  woe,  then,  conannenced  their  agency  a  consid- 
erable period  anterior  to  the  Reformation,  still  exercise  it,  and 
are  to  continue  through  nearly  the  whole  space  that  yet  inter- 
venes between  us  and  the  seventh  trumpet.  But  no  fact  in  his- 
tory is  more  indisputable  than  that  after  the  Goths  in  the  west, 
and  the  Saracens  in  the  east,  no  nation  except  the  Mahometan 
Tartars  invaded  the  Roman  empire,  and  established  a  vast  do- 
minion that  continues  to  the  present  time  without  a  change  of 
religion.  The  Tartar  conquerors  of  Hungary  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury who  were  pagans,  cannot  be  regarded  as  denoted  by  the 
symbol,  as  besides  a  want  of  likeness  in  other  respects,  they  be- 
came converts  to  Christianity.  There  is  an  absolute  certainty 
therefore  that  the  Mahometan  Tartars  are  the  race  represented 
by  the  symbol. 

The  first  horde  were  the  Seljukians,  who  invaded  the  eastern 
empire  about  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century,  under  Togrul 
Beg.  The  events  by  which  he  was  released  from  restraint, 
were  doubtless  his  conquest  of  western  Persia  and  Media,  and 
nomination  as  temporal  vicegerent  over  the  Moslem  w^orld.  He 
suddenly  overrun  with  myriads  of  cavalry  the  frontier,  from  Tau- 
rus to  Arzeroum,  and  spread  it  with  blood  and  devastation.  Alp 
Arslan  his  successor,  soon  renewed  the  invasion,  conquered 
Armenia  and  Georgia,  penetrated  into  Cappadocia  and  Phrygia, 
and  scattered  detachments  over  the  whole  of  lesser  Asia.  His 
troops  being  subsequently  driven  back,  he  renewed  the  war,  and 
recovered  those  provinces.  His  descendants,  and  others  of  the 
race,  soon  after  extended  their  conquests,  and  established  the 
kingdoms  in  the  east  of  Persia  and  Syria,  and  Roum  in  lesser 
Asia,  which  they  maintained  through  many  generations,  and 
made  their  sway  a  scorpion  scourge  to  the  idolatrous  inhabitants. 
The  Christians  were  allowed  the  exercise  of  their  religion  on 
the  conditions  of  tribute  and  servitude,  but  were  compelled  to 
endure  the  scorn  of  the  victors,  to  submit  to  the  abuse  of  their 
priests  and  bishops,  and  to  witness  the  apostasy  of  their  breth- 
ren, the  compulsory  circumcision  of  many  thousands  of  their 
children,  and  the  sulDJection  of  many  thousands  to  a  debasing  and 
hopeless  slavery.^ 

The  second  army  was  that  of  the  Moguls  who  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  after  the  conquest  of  Persia,  passed  the  Euphrates,  plan 

*  Gibbon's  Hist.  chap.  Ivii. 
29 


226  THE  SIXTH  TRUMPET. 

dered  and  devastated  Syria,  subdued  Armenia,  Iconium,  and 
Anatolia,  and  extinguished  the  Seljukian  dynasty.  Another  ar- 
my advancing  to  the  west,  devastated  the  country  on  both  sides 
of  the  Danube,  Thrace,  Bulgaria,  Servia,  Bosnia,  Hungary,  Aus- 
tria, and  spread  them  with  the  ruins  of  their  cities  and  churches, 
and  the  bones  of  their  inhabitants.  This  horde  had  been  prepared 
for  this  invasion  by  vast  conquests  in  the  east.* 

The  third  were  the  Ottomans,  who  in  the  beginning  of  the  four- 
teenth century  conquered  Bitiiynia,  Lydia,  Ionia,  Thrace,  Bulga- 
ria, Servia,  and  in  the  following  century  Constantinople  itself, 
and  have  maintained  their  empire  to  the  present  lime.  They 
were  released  from  restraint  on  the  one  hand  by  the  decay  of  the 
Mogul  Khans,  to  whom  they  had  been  subject,  and  on  the  other 
by  tlie  dissensions  and  weakness  of  the  Greeks.^ 

The  last  was  that  of  the  Moguls  under  Tamerlane,  who  in  the 
beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  overrun  Georgia,  Syria,  and 
Anatolia,  and  spread  them  with  slaughter  and  desolation.^  He 
also  had  been  prepared  for  this  incursion  by  his  previous  victo- 
ries and  conquests. 

Grotius,  Dr.  Hammond,  Eichhorn,  and  Rosenmuller,  interpret 
this  symbol  of  the  Roman  armies  which  under  Titus  devastated 
Judea  and  captured  Jerusalem  ;  but  they  exhibit  none  of  the  re- 
quisite resemblances.  They  were  not  foreigners.  They  had 
not  previously  been  excluded  from  Judea,  but  had  held  it  as  a 
province  for  generations.  The  Jews  were  not  worshippers  of 
creatures  or  idols.  That  period  was  many  centuries  too  early. 
Their  dominion  was  terminated  by  the  conquests  of  the  Sara- 
cens. It  has  never  been  renewed.  They  cannot  therefore  be 
the  agents  of  the  second  woe  who  are  to  continue  till  near  the 
seventh  trumpet. 

Cocceius  interprets  it  of  the  wars  of  the  Catholics  under  Fer- 
dinand against  the  Protestants  in  the  seventeenth  century.  But 
that  is  to  reverse  the  symbol  and  exhibit  idolaters  as  the  inflict- 
ors  of  the  evils  it  denotes,  and  true  worshippers  as  the  subjects 
of  the  judgment.  The  worshippers  of  idols  are  those  who  are 
slaughtered  and  tormented,  not  those  who  torment  and  slaughter. 

Vitringa  and  Dean  Woodliouse  regard  the  Saracens  as  the 
first  of  the  four  hosts  denoted  by  the  symbol.  But  that  is  found- 
ed on  the  assumption  that  the  Saracens  were  not  the  agents  de- 
noted by  the  locusts  of  the  fifth  trumpet,  and  is  disproved  also 
by  the  consideration  that  the  public  and  legalized  apostasy  to  idol- 

'  Gibbon's  Hist.  chap.  Ixiv.  "  Ibid.  chap.  Ixiv.  '  Ibid.  chap.  Ixv. 


THE  SIXTH  TRUMPET.  227 

worship  which  the  agents  of  the  second  woe  were  to  punish,  took 
place  chiefly  after  the  Saracens  entered  on  their  career,  and  did 
not  gain  a  full  sanction  in  the  eastern  empire,  until  near  the  mid- 
dle of  the  ninth  century,  when  their  power  had  begun  to  decline. 
But  the  apostasy  which  the  Saracens  were  appointed  to  scourge, 
the  impious  homage  of  rulers,  and  the  worship  of  relics,  saints, 
and  angels,  commenced  at  the  elevation  of  Constantino,  and  had 
become  universal  at  the  period  of  their  first  conquests.  The 
great  peculiarity  of  those  who  have  the  seal  of  God  on  their 
foreheads  is,  that  they  ascribe  to  God  alone  the  right  to  appoint 
the  faith,  the  worship,  and  the  laws  of  his  church,  and  resist  and 
denounce  the  usurpation  of  that  right  by  men :  and  the  peculiar 
and  contradistinguishing  characteristic  of  those  who  have  not 
that  mark,  is  that  they  allow  and  uphold  the  arrogation  of  that 
right  by  civil  and  ecclesiastical  rulers.  As  the  latter  had  long 
prevailed  in  the  church  at  the  rise  of  the  Saracens,  the  office  to 
which  they  were  assigned  was  doubtless  that  of  torturing  those 
who  were  guilty  of  that  apostasy.  There  is  no  other  power  in- 
deed to  which  that  symbol  can  with  the  least  probability  be  re- 
ferred. On  the  other  hand,  as  the  worship  of  images  was  but 
partial  at  the  rise  of  the  Saracens,  and  did  not  reach  its  fullest 
prevalence  in  the  eastern  empire  until  two  hundred  years  after 
their  first  conquests,  the  office  of  punishing  that  idolatry  was 
doubtless  assigned  to  the  Turks  who  commenced  their  career 
after  it  had  become  universal. 

Mr.  Brightman,  Dr.  Cressener,  Mr.  Daubuz,  and  Mr.  Cuning- 
hame  interpret  it  of  the  Ottomans  exclusively.  But  that  leaves 
the  first  two  invasions,  by  which  the  idolatrous  churches  were 
chiefly  scourged  and  destroyed,  as  well  as  the  last,  unnoticed, 
and  cannot  therefore  be  correct.  It  presents  no  correspondence 
of  leaders  and  armies  with  the  number  of  the  angels.  It  is 
founded  on  the  erroneous  assumption  that  the  third  of  the  men 
denotes  the  men  of  the  eastern  empire.  That  term,  however, 
as  in  other  passages,  denotes  the  proportion  to  be  slain  to  the 
survivors,  in  the  region  over  which  the  horsemen  were  to  ex- 
tend their  ravages.  That  it  cannot  denote  the  territory  of  the 
eastern  empire,  the  want  of  analogy  shows,  agents  being  repre- 
sentatives of  agents  only,  not  of  mere  space  or  inanimate  mat- 
ter. It  is  demonstrated  also  by  the  ravages  themselves  of  the 
Ottomans,  which  were  not  confined  to  the  limits  of  that  empire 
at  that  period,  which  had  become  very  narrow  in  Asia  as  well  as 
Europe,  but  extended  into  Thrace,  Bulgaria,  Servia,  and  Hunga 
ry,  over  regions,  parts  of  which  were  never  embraced  in  the  east- 


228  THE  SIXTH  TRUMPET. 

ern  empire,  and  others  that  had  been  wrested  from  the  hands  of 
the  Romans  many  centuries. 

That  reference  of  the  symbol  is  chosen  also  by  some  writers, 
on  the  assumption  that  the  hour,  day,  month,  and  year,  for  which 
the  angels  had  been  prepared,  are  a  measure  of  the  period  du- 
ring which  the  horsemen  were  to  fulfil  their  slaughtering  office  ; 
but  that  is  without  authority  from  the  language,  is  irreconcilable 
with  the  far  longer  period  that  has  passed  than  that  which  they 
regard  those  terms  as  denoting,  and  is  confuted  by  the  repre- 
sentation in  the  eleventh  chapter  that  the  woe  of  the  horsemen  is 
to  continue  till  near  the  seventh  trumpet. 

Mr.  Mede,  Dr.  More,  Mr.  Jurieu,  Mr.  Whiston,  Bishop  New- 
ton, Mr.  Faber,  Mr.  Keith,  Mr.  Elliott,  interpret  the  symbol  of 
the  Seljukian  and  Ottoman  Turks  only.  But  that  is  to  leave 
two  of  the  four  incursions  of  the  same  Scythian  race  unnoticed. 
It  is  to  lose  the  correspondence  of  leaders  with  the  angels  by 
whom  they  are  symbolized.  The  four  sultanies  established  by 
the  Seljukians,  which  Mr,  Mede  regarded  the  angels  as  repre- 
senting, were  not  established  by  four  separate  armies.  They 
were  consequents,  not  antecedents  of  their  invasion  ;  and  within 
their  new  empire,  not  in  their  ancient  territory.  That  applica- 
tion is  chosen  also  on  the  assumption,  that  the  third  part  of  the 
men  denotes  the  eastern  empire,  which  is  to  make  agents  the 
symbol  of  a  territory,  and  is  against  analogy.  It  is  held  on  the 
ground  likewise  that  the  restraint  and  release  of  the  angels  at 
the  Euphrates,  indicates  that  the  agents  denoted  by  them  were 
to  enter  the  empire  by  the  passage  of  that  river.  Mr.  Elliott, 
indeed,  throughout  his  commentary,  proceeds  on  the  assumption 
that  geographical  references  indicate  the  scene  of  the  agency 
which  the  symbols  with  which  they  are  connected  denote  ;  and 
builds  on  it  many  of  his  constructions.  It  is  however  against 
analogy.  It  assumes  that  the  symbol  is  of  the  same  species  as 
that  which  it  represents  ;  or  the  symbolic  scene  as  that  in  which 
the  symbolized  agents  are  to  fulfil  their  office.  It  is,  moreover, 
impossible  to  adhere  to  that  assumption  in  the  interpretation  of 
many  of  the  symbols.  It  implies  tiiat  the  scene  of  the  agents  de- 
noted by  the  volcanic  mountain  of  the  second  trumpet,  is  literally 
the  sea  ;  of  the  star  of  the  third,  the  fountains  and  streams  ;  of 
the  stroke  of  the  fourth,  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  ;  and  of  the 
meteor  of  the  fifth,  the  gate  of  a  bottomless  abyss.  The  sea 
indeed,  the  rivers  and  fountains  exhibited  to  the  apostle,  were 
undoubtedly  those  of  the  apocalyptic  world  ;  but  they  were  ex- 
hibited to  him  because  they  were  the  scene  of  the  symbols,  not 


THE  RAINBOW  ANGEL.  229 

because  lliey  were  to  be  the  scene  of  the  agencies  which  those 
symbols  represent.  The  sixth  angel  accordingly,  if  stationed  as 
is  probable  towards  the  Euphrates,  was  stationed  there  because 
that  was  to  be  the  scene  of  the  symbolic  agents,  not  because  the 
agents  whom  they  represented  were  to  pass  that  stream  on  their 
entrance  into  the  empire.  The  symbol  was  chosen,  I  doubt  not, 
because  of  the  analogy  between  the  event  to  be  foreshown,  and 
the  conquest  of  Babylon,  the  ancient  seat  of  idolatry,  by  the  di- 
version of  the  river  from  its  channel,  which  allowed  Cyrus  and 
his  army  to  pass  beneath  the  walls  without  obstruction. 


SECTION  XXIV. 

CHAPTER    X.     1-11. 

THE  RAINBOW  ANGEL. 


And  I  saw  another  mighty  angel  descending  from  heaven,  robed 
with  a  cloud,  and  the  iris  over  his  head :  and  his  face  [was]  as  the 
sun,  and  his  feet  as  pillars  of  fire  :  and  having  in  his  hand  a  little 
book  opened.  And  he  set  his  right  foot  upon  the  sea,  and  his  left 
oil  the  land,  and  he  cried  with  a  loud  voice  as  a  lion  roars.  And 
when  he  had  cried,  the  seven  thunders  uttered  their  voices.  And 
when  the  seven  thunders  had  spoken,  I  was  about  to  write.  And  I 
heard  a  voice  from  heaven  saying :  Seal  what  the  seven  thunders 
spake,  and  write  them  not.  And  the  angel  whom  I  saw  standing  on 
the  sea  and  on  the  land,  lifted  his  right  hand  towards  heaven  and 
sware  by  him  who  lives  forever  and  ever,  who  created  heaven  and 
the  things  in  it,  and  the  land  and  the  things  on  it,  and  the  sea  and 
the  things  in  it,  that  the  time  shall  not  be  yet,  but  in  the  days  of  the 
voice  of  the  seventh  angel,  when  he  shall  be  ready  to  sound,  and  the 
mystery  of  God  shall  be  finished,  as  he  announced  the  glad  tidings  to 
his  servants  the  prophets.  And  the  voice  which  I  heard  from 
heaven  again  spake  to  me  and  said,  Go  take  the  little  book  which 
is  opened  in  the  hand  of  the  angel  who  stands  on  the  sea  and  on  the 
land.  And  I  went  to  the  angel  asking  him  to  give  to  me  the  little 
book.  And  he  said  to  me.  Take  and  eat  it,  and  it  shall  embitter 
thy  stomach,  but  in  thy  mouth  it  shall  be  sweet  as  honey.  And  I 
took  the  little  book  from  the  hand  of  the  angel,  and  ate  it,  and  it  was 
in  my  mouth  as  sweet  honey.  And  when  1  had  eat  it,  my  stomach 
was  embittered.  And  he  said  to  me,  Thou  must  again  prophesy 
before  peoples,  and  nations,  and  tongues,  and  many  kings. 


230  THE  RAINBOW  ANGEL. 

It  was  announced  immediately  before  the  sixth  angel  sounded, 
that  one  woe  had  passed.  The  reason  probably  was  that  the 
agents  of  that  woe  were  still  in  the  scene,  and  were  to  continue, 
though  in  a  different  relation,  and  intermix  with  the  agents  of  the 
second  woe.  It  is  also  announced  immediately  before  the  sev- 
enth trumpet,  the  second  woe  is  passed,  and  for  the  like  reason 
doubtless  that  its  agents  were  still  visible  to  the  apostle,  and  were 
to  continue,  though  in  another  relation,  and  share  in  the  convul- 
sions that  followed  the  seventh  trumpet.  Accordingly  when  this 
new  agent  descended,  the  horsemen  were  still  spread,  it  is  to  be 
assumed,  over  the  principal  scene  of  their  former  agency,  but  no 
longer  as  masters,  but  the  subjects  of  a  new  conquering  power. 

The  splendor  of  his  form  and  aspect,  denotes  their  conspicuity 
whom  he  represents,  and  the  effulgence  of  the  light  they  were  to 
impart  to  the  nations.  As  he  set  his  right  foot  on  the  sea  and 
his  left  on  the  land  before  uttering  ids  message,  it  may  indicate 
that  some  whom  he  symbolizes  were  to  cross  the  ocean  to  dis- 
tant isles  and  continents,  and  implies  therefore  that  the  agency 
which  they  were  to  exert,  was  to  continue  through  a  long  period. 

The  seven  thunders  that  followed  the  utterance  of  his  mes- 
sage, denote  violent  expressions  of  thought  and  passion,  by  those 
whom  the  agents  he  represented  were  to  address.  They  were 
seven  thunder  voices  uttering  an  intelligible  response  to  his  mes- 
sage, as  appears  from  the  apostle's  procedure  to  write,  and  the 
direction  he  received  not  to  write  what  they  had  spoken.  Their 
loudness  denotes  the  vastness  of  the  multitude  by  whom  that 
which  they  symboHzed  was  uttered.  That  the  apostle  was 
about  to  write  it  on  the  assumption  that  it  was  prophetic,  may 
perhaps  indicate  that  there  were  to  be  persons  who  would  regard 
what  they  had  spoken  as  inspired.  The  reason  that  it  was  not 
to  be  written,  doubtless,  was  that  it  was  not  inspired,  but  merely 
expressive  of  their  thoughts  and  affections  who  uttered  it,  of 
much  thence  that  was  mistaken  and  evil,  and  which  therefore  if 
written,  would  have  led  the  reader  and  hearer  of  the  Apocalypse 
to  dangerous  misconceptions.  The  solemn  oath  of  the  angel  was 
a  response  to  those  thunder  voices,  designed  obviously  to  correct 
an  error  which  they  had  expressed  in  regard  to  the  period  when 
the  empire  of  the  saints  was  to  be  established  on  earth.  The 
time  shall  not  be  yet,  but  in  the  days  of  the  voice  of  the  seventh 
angel  when  he  can  proceed  to  sound,  and  the  mystery  of  God 
can  be  finished,  as  he  announced  the  glad  tidings  to  his  servants 
the  prophets.  It  foreshows  therefore  that  they  who  were  to 
respond  to  their  message  whom  the  angel  symbolized,  were  to 


THE  RAINBOW  ANGEL.  231 

entertain  an  expectation  of  the  immediate  overthrow  of  anticlirist 
and  establishment  of  the  Redeemer's  millennial  kingdom. 

The  appeal  of  the  angel  to  the  creator  of  all  things  for  the 
truth  of  his  asseveration,  denotes  that  they  whom  he  symbolized, 
unlike  those  who  uttered  the  seven  thunders,  were  to  found 
their  teachings  respecting  the  commencement  of  that  reign  on 
the  word  of  God  alone,  and  make  it  the  sole  rule  of  their  faith 
and  ground  of  their  hope.  The  mystery  of  God  is  his  permis- 
sion of  the  supremacy  of  the  wild  beast  and  false  prophet  over 
the  church,  during  the  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years,  or  allow- 
ance of  the  triumph  of  antichrist  through  that  long  period,  ere  his 
descending  to  establish  his  kingdom  in  its  glory. 

In  the  reception  of  the  open  book,  the  apostle  acted  as  a  sym- 
bol. What  the  angel  with  the  book  was  to  him,  such  were 
those  whom  the  angel  symbolized,  to  persons  whom  the  apostle 
represented.  The  delivery  of  the  htlle  book,  denoted  that  they 
whom  the  angel  personated,  were  to  present  an  open  volume  to 
those  to  whom  they  should  be  sent  as  messengers.  The  apostle 
in  receiving  it,  personated  the  recipients  of  that  volume.  His 
eating  it  with  a  sense  of  sweetness,  foreshowed  that  they  should 
receive  and  study  it  with  eagerness  and  delight ;  and  the  bitter- 
ness it  excited,  symbohzed  inquietudes,  aversions,  animosities, 
and  contests,  of  which  it  was  to  prove  to  them  the  occasion. 
And  the  announcement  that  he  must  again  prophesy  before  peo- 
ples and  nations,  and  tongues,  and  many  kings,  that  they  were 
still  to  fulfil  the  office  of  witnesses  for  God,  in  the  presence  of 
antichristian  rulers  and  nations. 

That  this  prediction  and  the  direction  to  take  and  eat  the  book, 
were  addressed  to  the  apostle  as  a  representative,  their  utterance 
by  the  symbolic,  not  by  the  interpreting  angel  or  a  voice  from 
heaven,  renders  indisputable.  As  the  cloud-robed  angel  was  a 
symbol,  and  a  part  of  his  office  was  the  delivery  of  an  open  book, 
.  the  object  of  his  address  and  action  in  that  delivery,  as  well  as 
the  action  itself,  was  symbolic.  Otherwise  there  were  no  analogy 
between  the  representative  agent  and  the  objects  and  effects  of 
his  agency.  It  is  as  contradictory  to  the  law  of  symbolization,  to 
assume  that  the  object  and  effect  of  a  symbolic  action  are  not 
symbolic,  as  it  is  to  assume  that  the  agent  is  not  a  symbol.  It 
is  as  contradictory  to  that  law  also,  to  assume  that  the  symbolic 
object  and  effect  are  of  the  same  species  as  those  which  they 
represent,  as  a  like  assumption  is  in  regard  to  the  symbolic  and 
symbolized  agent.  To  assign  therefore  any  other  than  a  repre- 
sentative character  to  the  apostle  in  his  reception  of  those  ad 


232  THE  RAINBOW  ANGEL. 

dresses  and  the  book,  is  to  set  aside  the  whole  spectacle  as  a 
symbolization,  and  the  whole  series  of  visions,  reject  the  laws 
of  construction  which  its  nature  demands,  and  convert  it  into  a 
chaos  of  unintelligibleness. 

To  prophesy  as  witnesses  is,  as  is  shown  in  the  next  chapter, 
to  assert  and  proclaim  the  rights  of  God  and  the  doctrines  of  his 
word  in  opposition  to  the  blasphemous  usurpations  of  the  wild 
beast,  and  impious  teachings  of  the  false  prophet.  The  wild  beast 
is  the  agent  it  is  shown  also  by  which  they  were  to  be  slain 
whom  the  apostle  personated,  and  who  were  still  to  prophesy  be- 
fore peoples,  and  nations,  and  tongues,  and  many  kings. 

The  rainbow  angel  then,  like  other  symbolic  actors,  was  the 
representative  of  a  class  and  succession  of  agents  of  great  con- 
spicuity  and  influence,  who  were  to  enter  on  the  apocalyptic  scene 
during  the  period  that  was  to  intervene  between  the  invasion  of 
the  empire  by  the  last  Turkish  army,  and  the  termination  of  the 
second  woe.  Those  agents  were  to  be  men,  religious  teachers, 
and  witnesses  for  God,  manifestly  from  the  relation  of  the  re- 
sponses which  their  message  was  to  excite  and  the  answering  oath 
of  the  angel,  to  the  period  of  the  advent  of  the  Son  of  God,  to  the 
mysteries  of  his  administration,  and  to  the  glad  tidings  respecting 
it  made  known  to  the  ancient  prophets.  Their  message  was  to 
excite  vast  multitudes  to  loud  and  violent  expressions  of  thought 
and  passion,  involving  false  pretences  to  inspiration,  and  an  error 
in  regard  to  the  period  of  Christ's  second  advent,  or  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  antichristian  powers.  They  were  to  respond  to  that 
expression  by  appealing  to  the  word  of  God  as  the  only  guide  of 
faith,  and  proclaiming  its  teachings,  that  that  advent  was  not  yet 
to  take  place,  but  at  the  sound  of  ihe  seventh  trumpet  when  the 
mystery  of  God  is  finished,  as  was  foreshown  to  his  servants  the 
propiiets.  They  were  to  deliver  to  those  to  whom  they  were  to 
address  their  message,  an  open  volume,  which  their  hearers  were 
to  receive  and  study  with  eagerness  and  pleasure,  but  from  which 
acidities,  agitation,  and  violences  of  passion  were  to  spring,  anal- 
ogous to  the  bitterness  excited  by  the  little  book  in  the  apostle  ; 
and  they,  their  hearers,  and  their  followers,were  to  fulfil  the  office 
of  witnesses  for  God,  in  opposition  to  the  wild  beast. 

These  characteristics  point  us  most  obviously  to  the  Reformers 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  their  followers,  as  their  counterpart. 
All  the  peculiarities  meet  in  them,  and  in  them  alone.  Tiicy  were 
as  conspicuous  to  the  men  of  that  age  and  invested  with  as  daz- 
zling a  splendor,  as  a  gigantic  angel  could  have  been  descending 
from  heaven,  robed  in  a  cloud,  and  crowned  with  the  brilliance  of 


THE    RAINBOW    ANGEL.  233 

a  rainbow.  They  uttered  their  message  with  a  hon  voice  that  re- 
sounded through  all  the  valleys  of  Europe,  echoed  from  her  re- 
motest mountains,  and  struck  their  foes  with  a  terror  like  that  with 
which  the  onset  of  that  monarch  of  beasts  strikes  its  victims. 
Their  voice  drew  from  innumerable  multitudes  of  the  nations  of 
Europe  instantaneous  and  passionate  expressions  of  thought  and 
feeling,  that  shook  the  ecclesiastical  and  civil  governments  to  their 
foundations,  as  loud  thunders  shake  the  dome  of  heaven.  One 
of  the  first  and  most  violent  of  those  thunder  utterances  was  a 
false  pretence  to  inspiration,  and  expression  of  the  persuasion  that 
the  period  had  arrived  of  the  final  overthrow  of  antichrist  and  es- 
tablishment of  the  Redeemer's  millennial  kingdom.  That  expres- 
sion prompted  the  Reformers  and  their  successors  to  correct  the 
error  by  an  appeal  to  the  Scriptures,  and  demonstration  that  the 
advent  of  Christ  is  not  to  take  place  until  the  sound  of  the  sev- 
enth trumpet,  and  the  close  of  the  period  of  the  wild  beast,  as  was 
foreshown  to  tiie  ancient  prophets,  Daniel  and  Zechariah,  to  the 
apostles  by  Christ,  and  to  the  churches  by  the  apostles.  They 
delivered  to  their  followers  the  word  of  God,  opened  to  their  pe- 
rusal by  translation  into  their  several  languages,  and  easy  and 
cheap  multiplication  through  the  art  of  printing,  and  like  the  an- 
gel enjoined  them  as  an  imperative  duty  and  inestimable  privilege 
to  receive  and  study  it  as  his,  and  the  only  authoritative  revela- 
tion of  his  will.  The  Scriptures  were  received  and  studied  by 
their  followers  with  the  utmost  eagerness  and  delight,  but  diversities 
of  opinion,  alienations,  contentions,  and  intolerances,  soon  sprung 
from  the  study  of  them,  that  distracted  the  Protestant  churches, 
and  filled  them  with  confusion  and  misery.  The  Reformed  teach- 
ers fulfilled,  and  their  successors  have  continued  in  a  degree 
through  every  subsequent  age,  to  fulfil  the  office  of  witnesses  for 
God,  in  opposition  to  the  usurpations  of  the  wild  beast  and  er- 
rors of  the  false  prophet ;  and  they  are  still  to  sustain  that  office, 
as  is  shown  in  the  following  chapters,  till  the  mystery  of  God  is 
finished. 

All  these  characters  meet  in  them  so  eminently  and  so  notori- 
ously, as  to  leave  it  scarcely  necessary  to  verify  the  application 
by  references  to  liistory.  Luther  commenced  the  Rcforination  in 
1517,  one  hundred  years  after  the  invasion  of  the  eastern  empire 
by  Tamerlane,  and  sixty-four  after  tlie  conquest  of  Constantino- 
ple by  the  Ottoman  Turks,  but  near  one  lumdrcd  before  they 
reached  the  acme  of  their  power,  and  relinquished  the  endeavor 
and  hope  to  extend  their  empire  over  a  larger  space  of  eastern 
Europe.      During  that  whole  period  they  were  objects  of  su- 

30 


234  THE    RAINBOW    ANGEL. 

preme  terror  to  both  the  Cathohc  and  Protestant  worlds.  The 
attack  on  the  papacy  by  Luther,  Zuinghus,  and  their  associates, 
and  proclamation  in  opposition  to  the  false  doctrines  and  impious 
superstitions  of  the  Romish  church  of  the  great  truths  of  the  gos- 
pel, instantly  produced  a  thunder  explosion  of  passion  from  the 
people  throughout  Germany  and  Switzerland,  and  subsequently 
the  other  nations  of  Europe. 

I.  Of  those  multitudes  there  were  many,  especially  in  Germa- 
ny, who  not  only  anticipated  the  speedy  overthrow  of  antichrist 
and  the  establishment  of  the  empire  of  the  saints,  but  assumed  the 
office  of  prophets,  predicted  the  immediate  fall  of  the  apostate 
church,  and  claimed  for  their  announcement  the  authority  of  in- 
spiration. 

"  A  body  of  persons  secretly  sprung  up  at  this  period,  1522, 
who  asserted  that  they  had  communications  from  God,  and  had 
received  a  command  to  slay  all  the  wicked  and  constitute  a  new 
world,  in  which  the  pious  only  and  innocent  should  live  and  rule. 
They  disseminated  their  doctrine  clandestinely  in  that  part  of 
Saxony  chiefly  which  borders  the  river  Sale,  and  even  Carlostadt, 
according  to  Luther's  representation,  approved  of  their  opinions  ; 
for  being  unable  from  Luther's  influence  to  effect  his  wishes  at 
Wittemburg,  he  left  his  station  there  and  joined  these."' 

"  In  November,  1524,  the  peasants  in  several  parts  of  Ger- 
many engaged  in  seditions,  and  in  the  spring  of  1525  vast  bodies 
rose,  especially  on  the  borders  of  the  Danube,  and  made  war  on 
the  papal  ecclesiastics,  partly  in  order  to  gain  greater  civil,  and 
partly  in  order  to  religious  freedom."^  "  This  contest  was  exci- 
ted in  a  degree  by  a  class  of  rash  preachers  of  whom  the  princi- 
pal was  Thomas  Muncer,  who  abandoning  the  gospel,  proposed 
a  new  doctrine.  He  assailed  not  only  the  Roman  pontiff",  but 
Luther  also,  and  denounced  their  doctrines  as  alike  defective  and 
corrupt,  asserting  that  the  pontiff"  chained  the  minds  of  men  by 
too  severe  laws,  and  that  Luther  unloosed  those  chains  indeed, 
but  granted  too  great  indulgence,  and  neglected  to  teach  the  things 
of  the  Spirit ;  that  if  we  would  gain  salvation  we  must  not  only 
abstain  from  all  flagitious  crimes,  but  chasten  and  macerate  the 
body  by  fasting,  look  grave,  be  taciturn,  and  wear  a  long  beard. 
These  and  other  things  of  the  kind  he  called  the  cross,  tiic  mor- 
tification of  the  flesh,  and  discipline.  Having  prepared  his  fol- 
lowers by  these  instructions,  he  then  directed  each  to  retire  from 
the  crowd,  and  meditate  on  God,  considering  what  he  is,  wheth- 
er he  exercises  a  providence  over  us,  whetiier  Christ  died  for  us, 

*  Sleidani  Comment,  de  statu.  Rclig.  lib.  iii.  f.  47  *  Ibid.  lib.  iv.  f.  66, 68, 69. 


THE    RAINBOW    ANGEL.  235 

and  whether  our  rehgion  is  preferable  to  that  of  the  Turks  ;  and 
to  ask  God  to  testify  by  a  sign  that  we  are  the  objects  of  his  care, 
and  ai-e  in  the  way  of  the  true  rehgion,  and  if  he  sliould  not  im- 
mediately grant  a  signal,  to  persist  nevertheless  and  with  the  ut- 
most urgency  in  prayer,  and  even  seriously  expostulate  with  him 
as  unjust  in  not  yielding  an  answer  ;  that  as  the  Scriptures  repre- 
sent him  as  willing  to  give  whatever  is  asked,  it  would  not  be 
just  should  he  grant  no  sign  to  one  who  prayed  for  a  true  knowl- 
edge of  him ;  and  such  expostulation  and  anger  he  said  were  ex- 
tremely grateful  to  God,  as  he  saw  from  them  their  disposition 
towards  him  and  earnestness  ;  and  there  was  no  doubt  but  that 
being  importuned  in  that  manner,  he  would  declare  himself  by 
some  conspicuous  signal,  slake  their  thirst,  and  act  with  them  as 
he  formerly  did  with  the  patriarchs.  He  taught  also  that  God 
manifested  his  will  by  dreams,  made  them  the  great  instrument 
of  his  schemes,  and  when  he  succeeded  in  interpreting  one, 
boasted  of  it  in  his  public  addresses.  When  he  had  in  this  man- 
ner induced  a  large  number  to  join  him,  he  began  to  eiu'ol  those 
who  promised  him  assistance  in  his  attempt  to  slay  the  un- 
godly and  institute  a  new  magistracy,  asserting  that  he  had  a  con)- 
mission  from  God  to  destroy  the  old  rulers  and  establish  new; 
collected  a  vast  crowd  of  followers  half  armed  and  without  disci- 
pline to  accomplish  his  purposes,  and  perished  and  a  vast  body 
of  his  adherents  in  the  attempt."* 

At  the  distance  of  ten  years  a  party  of  similar  fanatics  again 
organized  under  Cnipperdoling  who  claimed  prophetic  gifts,  was 
constituted  their  king,  and  asserted  that  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
was  to  be  like  his  till  the  day  of  judgment,  in  order  that  the  wick- 
ed being  wholly  destroyed,  the  pious  and  elect  might  reign.  He 
taught  that  it  was  lawful  for  the  people  to  abolish  their  magistra- 
cies ;  that  although  the  apostles  were  not  commanded  to  assume 
a  civil  jurisdiction,  yet  the  present  ministers  of  the  church  ought 
to  take  the  sword  and  by  force  constitute  a  new  republic  ;^'  that 
this  was  the  time  in  which  all  the  prophets  had  foreshown  that 
righteousness  was  to  prevail  throughout  the  world  ;  the  lime  in 
which  Christ  had  said  the  meek  should  possess  the  earth.^ 

'  Sleidani  Comment,  lib.  v.  f.  71-74.  ^  Ibid.  lib.  x.  f.  152. 

'  Ibid.  Ranke  presents  the  same  representation.  "  In  1521  a  sect  conirregatc-d 
around  a  fanatical  weaver  named  Clans  Storck,  that  professed  the  most  e.xtrava- 
gant  doctrines.  Luther  did  not  go  near  far  enough  for  them.  Very  difl'orent  men 
they  said,  and  of  a  much  more  elevated  spirit  were  required  ;  for  what  could  such 
servile  observance  of  the  Biblo  avail.  That  book  was  insuflicient  lor  man's  instruc- 
tion ;  he  could  only  be  tauglit  by  the  iminediato  iu.spirutiou  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Tlieir 
fanaticism  soon  rose  to  such  a  pitch  us  to  convince  tliem  tliat  liiis  was  uctuully  grant- 


236  THE    RAINBOW    ANGEL. 

II.  That  misapprehension  the  Reformers  and  their  successors 
endeavored  to  counteract  by  an  appeal  to  the  word  of  God  as  the 
only  revelation  of  his  purposes,  and  exposition  of  the  pro- 
phecies respecting  the  conflicts  of  the  church  with  antichrist, 
and  the  advent  of  the  Redeemer,  which  show  that  the  persecu- 
ting powers  are  not  to  be  overthrown  until  the  times  of  the  gen- 
tiles reach  their  end,  the  judgment  of  the  wild  beast  is  set,  and 
the  period  of  the  seventh  trumpet  arrives. 

Thus  Luther  immediately  opposed  these  fanatics,  pointed  out 
their  errors,  and  endeavored  to  recall  them  from  their  presump- 
tuous schemes.  He  notified  the  magistrates  of  Mulhausen,  into 
which  Muncer  was  designing  to  introduce  himself  and  his  party, 
that  he  regarded  him  as  a  seditious  person  who  thought  of  noth- 
ing but  violence  and  robbery,  that  his  plans  were  known,  and 
that  he  ought  therefore  to  be  carefully  watched,  and  not  allowed 
to  enter  their  city ;  and  apprized  them  that  if  they  rejected  his 
counsel,  and  afterwards  became  involved  in  difficulties,  he,  hav- 
ing so  carefully  forewarned  them,  should  be  blameless.  He 
recommended  them  to  ask  him  who  called  him  to  the  office 
which  he  assumed,  and  should  he  pretend  to  have  been  appoint- 
ed by  God,  to  require  him  to  demonstrate  his  vocation  by  some 
evident  sign,  and  if  he  declined,  to  reject  him.^  And  as  the  agita- 
tion spread  through  Germany,  and  indications  appeared  of  a  tu- 
mult, he  published  a  book  in  which  he  warned  all  to  abstain  from 
sedition ;  and  stated  that  although  terrific  mobs  seemed  to  en- 
danger the  Roman  ecclesiastics,  yet  in  his  judgment  they  were 
not  to  overturn  their  power ;  the  calamities  that  were  threatened 
to  be  inflicted  on  them  were  of  a  far  different  nature  ;  Daniel  and 
Paul  had  foretold  that  their  tyranny  was  to  be  overthrown,  not 
by  the  hand  of  man,  but  by  the  advent  of  Christ,  and  by  the 
Holy  Spirit.  All  endeavors  therefore  to  conquer  them  by  arms 
would  prove  vain ;  the  only  method  of  overcoming  them  Avas  to 
expose  their  crimes  and  preach  the  gospel.  If  that  were  faith- 
fully continued  their  kingdom  would  soon  fall,  or  if  any  portion 

ed  to  them ;  that  God  spake  to  them  in  person,  and  dictated  to  them  how  to  act, 
and  what  to  preach.  On  the  strength  of  this  immediate  inspiration,  they  pressed  for 
various  alterations  in  tlie  service  of  the  churcii."  "  Tiiey  asserted  tiiat  tlie  world 
was  threatened  with  a  general  devastation,  of  which  the  Turks  were,  perhaps,  to  be 
the  instruments.  No  priest  was  to  remain  alive,  nor  any  ungodly  man  ;  but  after 
this  bloody  purification  the  kingdom  of  God  would  commence,  and  tlicre  would  be 
one  faith  and  one  baptism." — Hist.  Reformation,  vol.  ii.  pp.  22, 23.  He  goes  on  to  re- 
late that  they  were  inclined  to  begin  that  work  themselves,  and  collected  arms  with  the 
design  of  assaulting  and  slaughtering  their  opponents,  but  were  intercepted  and  dis- 
persed. See  also  vol.  ii.  ciiap.  vi. 
'  Sleidaui  Comment,  lib.  v.  f.  74. 


THE   RAINBOW  ANGEL.  237 

should  not  be  overturned  by  that  means,  it  would  be  cxtuiguished 
at  the  advent  of  Christ.^  He  held  that  there  was  to  be  no  sud- 
den extermination  of  error,  but  instead  a  long  and  strenuous  con- 
flict, in  which  no  means  were  authorized  or  could  prove  successful 
but  those  of  the  gospel.  "  We  are  neither  able  to  hurl  the  pon- 
tiff from  his  station,  nor  will  the  truth  ever  be  safe  while  the  pa- 
pacy survives."  "  We  have  no  right  to  introduce  or  tolerate  any 
thing  in  the  church  except  what  can  be  sustained  by  the  word  of 
God."2 

His  comments  on  the  second  Psalm  abound  with  similar  rep- 
resentations. "  In  our  time  the  success  of  the  gospel  at  first  was 
great,  and  all  like  the  apostles  before  being  taught  by  the  Spirit 
respecting  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  hoped  that  the  inculcation  of 
its  precepts  would  bring  political  liberty  and  peace.  But  when 
Muncer,  who  was  animated  by  a  seditious  spirit,  began  to  excite 
tumults,  and  afterwards  the  church  was  distracted  by  Carlostadt, 
Cinglius,  and  other  fanatical  teachers,  it  came  to  be  understood 
that  it  is  in  accordance  with  the  representation  of  the  Scriptures, 
that  distractions  take  place  in  it,  and  seditions  in  the  stale,  and 
that  tlie  saints  are  marked  by  great  infirmities  ;  and  it  was  felt 
that  the  only  safety  lay  in  not  hoping  for  safety  amidst  such 
pressing  dangers.  Many,  however,  then  became  discouraged, 
recoiled,  and  even  turned  to  a  hatred  of  the  gospel." 

"  But  the  sole  reason  of  this  error  was,  that  they  were  not 
aware  that  the  nature  of  Christ's  kingdom  is  such,  that  it  is 
naturally  assailed  on  every  hand  by  Satan  and  the  world.  Being 
ignorant  of  this,  they  yield  to  danger,  and  condemn  the  gospel 
as  the  cause  of  seditions.  The  Psalmist  therefore  to  guard  them 
against  this  misapprehension,  here  paints  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
according  to  its  varying  circumstances,  and  teaches  that  it  is  to 
have  numerous  and  powerful  enemies."^ 

He  goes  on  through  the  exposition  to  show  that  a  perpetual 
warfare  is  to  be  maintained  with  foes,  and  that  they  are  to  be 

'  Nam  longfe  aliam  ipsis  impendere  calamitatem,  et  fore  quod  post  Danielem 
Paulus  etiain  prffinuntiavit,  ut  ipsorum  tyrannis  nulla  vi  huinana,  sed  adveutu 
Christi  servatoris  et  Spiritu  Dei  corruat.  Hoc  sute  senteiititB  esse  fundamentuin. — 
Sleidani  Comment,  lib.  v.  fol.  74.  Postremo  celebrandam  esse  doctrinam  evan- 
gelii,  et  pontiticum  imposturas  orbi  terrarum  patefaciendas,  ut  detectis  erroribus  et 
a<rnita  veritate,  homines  pro  nihilo  ducant  et  plane  contemnant  quicquid  ab  illia 
prol'ectum  fuerit. — F.  75. 

^  Nee  enim  nos  pontificem  loco  deturbare  possumus,  neque  vera  doctrina,  salvo 
pontificatu,  iucolumis  esse  potest . .  .  Nee  enim  est  arbitrii  nostri  statuere  vel  toler- 
are  aliquid  in  ecclesia  quod  verbo  Dei  defenjdi  non  potest.— Sleidani  Comment,  lib. 
vii.  f.  115. 

'  Lutheri  Op.  torn.  iv.  f.  735. 


238  THE    RAIXBOW    ANGEL. 

overcome  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  by  prayer,  faith,  watchfahiess, 
and  the  word  of  the  gospel.  Such  are  his  representations  also 
in  his  comment  on  Joel,  in  which  he  teaches  that  the  gifts  be- 
stowed by  the  Spirit,  are  bestowed  through  the  written  word,  not 
through  new  revelations  ;  that  the  acts  to  which  he  excites  are 
faith,  a  warfare  against  sin,  self-denial,  and  universal  obedience 
to  the  gospel ;  and  that  the  written  word  is  the  sole  instrument 
through  which  God  deigns  to  awaken  and  enlighten  men,  and 
finally  turn  them  from  thoughtlessness  to  fear,  and  from  fear  to 
comfort  through  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  and  a  hope  that  neither 
dangers  nor  death  itself  can  shake.^ 

The  pretences  of  the  Anabaptists  to  inspiration  were  in  like 
manner  denounced  by  Melancthon.  "  The  Anabaptists  infatu- 
ated by  the  devil  have  boasted  of  a  new  species  of  sanctity,  as 
though  they  had  left  the  earth,  and  ascended  to  the  skies  ;  and 
given  out  moreover  that  they  enjoy  extraordinary  inspiration.  But 
as  the  pretence  was  hypocritical,  and  designed  merely  to  sub- 
serve appetite  and  ambition,  they  soon  plunged  into  debauchery, 
and  then  excited  seditions,  and  undertook  to  establish  a  new  Je- 
rusalem, as  other  enthusiasts  have  often  attempted.  A  like  trage- 
dy w^as  formerly  acted  at  Pepuza  in  Phrygia,  which  fanatical 
prophets  denominated  the  New  Jerusalem."^ 

He  taught  also  that  the  pious  in  place  of  a  sudden  deliverance 
from  trial,  and  exemption  from  annoyance  by  enemies,  were  still 
to  suffer  affliction,  and  be  pursued  as  in  all  former  ages  by  vin- 
dictive foes.  He  regarded  it  as  a  settled  law  of  the  divine  ad- 
ministration that  the  church  was  to  be  subjected  to  the  cross. 
"  Such  has  often  been  the  aspect  of  the  church.  We  must  not 
distrust  God,  if  in  this  last  age  we  see  it  severely  shaken,  but 
remember  that  by  his  wonderful  counsel  it  is  to  be  subjected  to 
the  cross."^ 

He  also  refuted  by  the  Scriptures  the  expectation  of  the  Ana- 
baptists of  the  immediate  establishment  of  Christ's  millennial 
kingdom.  He  regarded  the  term  antichrist  as  denoting  both  the 
Mahometan  empire  and  the  papacy,  and  held  that  they  were  not 
to  be  overthrown  till  the  time  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and 
that  a  considerable  period  was  to  pass  before  that  event.  "God 
showed  to  Daniel  a  series  of  monarchies  and  kingdoms  which  it 
is  certain  has  already  run  to  the  end.  Four  monarchies  have 
passed  away.  The  cruel  kingdom  of  the  Turks  which  arose 
out  of  the  fourth,  still  remains,  which  as  it  is  not  to  equal  the 

'  Lutlieri  Op.  torn.  iv.  f.  789. 

'  Melanctlioni  Op.  torn.  iv.  p  411.  ^  Ibid.  torn.  ii.  p.  446. 


THE    RAINBOW    ANGEL.  239 

Roman  in  power,  and  has  certainly  therefore  already  nearly 
reached  its  height,  must  soon  decline,  and  then  will  dawn  the 
day  in  which  the  dead  shall  be  recalled  to  life."  He  then  repeats 
the  saying  ascribed  to  Elias,  that  six  thousand  years  were  to  pass 
before  the  advent  of  Christ ;  two  thousand  before  the  law,  two 
under  the  law,  and  two  under  the  gospel  :  and  proceeds  to  show 
that  four  hundred  and  fifty-eight  years  were  therefore  to  intervene 
before  the  advent  of  the  Redeemer,  the  destruction  of  antichrist, 
and  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  the  saints.  "  It  is  known 
that  Christ  was  born  about  the  end  of  the  fourth  millenary,  and 
one  thousand  five  hundred  and  forty-two  years  have  since  re- 
volved. We  are  not  therefore  far  from  the  end.  Daniel  asked 
in  respect  to  the  time  of  the  end,  and  a  number  was  given  which, 
although  it  seems  to  respect  the  lime  of  the  Maccabees,  yet  un- 
doubtedly has  a  reference  to  the  end  of  the  world,  and  the  appli- 
cation is  easy,  if  days  be  taken  for  years.  They  will  be  two 
thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty-five.  We  do  not  endeavor  to 
ascertain  the  moment  when  the  last  day  is  to  dawn.  That  is 
not  to  be  sought.  But  inasmuch  as  this  number  happily  agrees 
with  the  words  of  Elias,  I  regard  it  as  denoting  the  years  through 
which  the  world  was  to  subsist  from  the  lime  of  Daniel.  There 
were  six  hundred,  or  near  that,  from  Daniel  to  the  birth  of 
Christ.  There  remained  therefore  two  thousand  years  as  the 
last  age  of  the  world."^ 

Luther  also  founded  his  Suppulation  of  limes  on  the  saying  of 
Ehas,  that  the  world  was  to  continue  seven  thousand  years,  and 
regarded  the  sixth  thousand  as  having  commenced  with  the  elev- 
enth century,  and  as  therefore  little  more  than  half  passed  at  his 
publication  of  that  work  in  1545.^ 

Flacius  in  his  Catalogue  of  Witnesses,  represented  the  twelve 
hundred  and  sixty  days  of  the  wild  beast  as  having  commenced 
in  606,  and  consequently  referred  its  destruction  and  the  advent 
of  Christ  lo  the  year  1866.^ 

These  views  corresponding  so  conspicuously  with  the  symbol, 
continued  to  be  repeated  by  a  crowd  of  writers,  till  at  the  dis- 
tance of  sixty-seven  years  from  the  death  of  Melancthon,  the 
celebrated  Joseph  Mede  published  his  Clavis  Apocalyptica,  in 
which  he  showed  from  the  coincidence  of  the  periods  of  the 

'  Melancthoni  Op  torn.  ii.  p.  525. 

^  Lutheri  Op.  torn.  iv.  f.  730.  See  also  Confess.  August,  c.  17.  "  Damnamus 
Anabaptistas  qui  nunc  Judaicas  opiniones  sparg-unt,  Hiiguiit  ante  resurrcctionein 
pios  regna  mundi  occupaturos  esse,  ubique  deletis  ant  oj)pressis  inipiis." 

'  Bellarmini  de  Rom.  Pont.  lib.  iii.  c.  3,  pp.  710,  711. 


240  THE    RAINBOW    ANGEL. 

wild  beast  and  the  witnesses,  that  the  advent  of  the  Redeemer, 
and  destruction  of  the  antichristian  powers  were  not  to  be  ex- 
pected until  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years  had  passed  from  the 
rise  of  the  ten  kingdoms,  and  that  near  one  Imndred  of  them 
therefore  were  still  to  revolve.  As  that  period  expired,  and  the 
knowledge  of  the  prophecy  advanced,  the  catastrophe  of  the 
wild  beast  was  referred  to  a  later  time.  Many  recent  expositors 
regard  the  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years  as  having  reached 
their  end  in  1792  ;  and  most  refer  the  fall  of  the  antichristian  pow 
ers  to  the  last  half  of  the  present,  or  the  beginning  of  the  next 
century. 

III.  The  Scriptures,  which  the  Catholic  clergy  had  for  ages 
almost  wholly  withheld  from  the  people,  the  Reformers  transla- 
ted, and  presented  to  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  enjoined  the 
reception  and  study  of  them  as  the  only  revelation  from  God, 
and  the  only  authoritative  rule  of  faith 

Luther  published  his  translation  of  the  New  Testament  in 
September,  1522.  Tindal's  English  translation  of  the  New 
Testament  was  published  in  1526  ;  Coverdale's  of  the  whole 
Scriptures  in  1535  ;  MathcAvs'  Bible  in  1537,  and  Cranmer's  in 
1539.  A  Latin  translation  of  the  Bible  was  printed  in  Italy  in 
1527;  an  Itahan  of  the  New  Testament  in  1530,  and  of  the 
whole  Scriptures  in  1532.  Several  others  also  soon  followed. 
A  French  translation  was  published  soon  after  the  Reformation, 
and  in  1543  the  New  Testament,  and  in  1553  the  whole  Scrip- 
tures in  Spanish.  They  were  translated  also  into  Portuguese, 
Danish,  and  Swedish,  and  placed  throughout  the  Protestant  na- 
tions in  the  hands  of  all  classes. 

IV.  Yet  diversities  of  opinion,  bitternesses,  and  violent  and  ran- 
corous contentions,  have  been  among  the  most  conspicuous  of 
tlie  consequences  that  have  sprung  from  the  enjoyment  of  that 
gift,  and  the  freedom  of  opinion  to  which  the  Reformation  gave 
birth. 

Dr.  Mosheim  says  of  the  Lutheran  divines  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  "  The  spirit  of  zeal  tliat  animated  them  was,  generally 
speaking,  very  far  from  being  tempered  by  a  spirit  of  charity. 
If  we  except  iVIelancthon,  in  whom  a  predominant  mildness  and 
sweetness  of  natural  temper  triumphed  over  the  contagious  fe- 
rocity of  the  times,  all  the  disputants  of  this  century  discovered 
too  much  bitterness  and  animosity  in  their  transactions  and  in 
their  writings.  Luther  himself  appears  at  the  head  of  this  san- 
guine tribe,  whom  he  far  surpassed  in  invective  and  abuse,  treat- 
ing his  adversaries  with  the  most  brutal  asperity,  and  sparing 


THE    RAINBOW  ANGEL.  241 

neither  rank  nor  condition,  however  elevated  or  respectable  they 
might  be."^  Of  those  of  the  next  century  he  gives  a  sinailar 
character.  "  The  Lutheran  church  was  involved  in  the  most 
lamentable  commotions  and  tumults  during  the  whole  course  of 
this  century,  partly  by  the  controversies  that  arose  among  its 
most  eminent  doctors,  and  partly  by  the  intemperate  zeal  of  vio- 
lent reformers,  the  fanatical  predictions  of  pretended  prophets, 
and  the  rash  measures  of  innovators,  who  studiously  spread 
among  the  people  new,  singular,  and  for  the  most  pait  extrava- 
gant opinions."^ 

The  first  of  these  dissensions  was  that  commenced  in  1522  by 
the  fanatical  pretenders  to  inspiration,  with  Carlostadt  at  their 
head  ;  who  by  their  wild  and  preposterous  doctrines  exposed  the 
Reformation  to  imminent  jeopardy.  They  denounced  all  learn- 
ing, set  aside  the  Scriptures  in  a  great  degree,  relied  on  the  im- 
mediate aid  of  the  Spirit  for  teaching  and  guidance,  and  endeav- 
ored to  excite  the  multitude  to  lake  arms  and  destroy  their 
opponents  by  violence.  This  delirious  scheme  was  instantly  met 
by  Luther,  its  falsehood  and  folly  exposed,  and  all  but  the  lowest 
rabble  restrained  from  yielding  it  countenance.^ 

The  next,  the  most  passionate  and  the  most  disastrous  of  their 
controversies,  commenced  in  1523  respecting  the  manner  in 
which  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are  present  in  the  eucharist, 
agitated  the  whole  Protestant  church  through  a  long  period,  and 
was  marked  by  a  violence,  acerbity,  and  abusiveness  that  have 
seldom  been  equalled  in  the  annals  of  religious  contention.^ 

Schwenckfeldt,  a  mystic  and  enthusiast,  soon  after  rose,  and 
excited  great  disturbances  and  contentions  respecting  the  euchar- 
ist, the  efficacy  of  the  divine  word,  and  the  nature  of  Christ. 
His  views  were  considered  so  false  and  dangerous,  that  they 
were  expressly  condemned  in  the  Form  of  Concord  published 
in  1576.5 

In  1538  a  fresh  contention  was  excited  by  a  party,  who  were 
accused  of  denying  the  obligations  of  the  moral  law,  and  justify- 
ing their  unscrupulous  gratification  of  the  sensual  and  malignant 
passions.  A  far  more  bitter  and  mischievous  discussion  arose 
after  the  death  of  Luther,  in  respect  to  the  edict  denominated 
the  Interim,  which  divided  the  church  for  many  years,  and 
greatly  obstructed  the  progress  of  the  Reformation.     "  The  de- 

'  Mosheim,  Hist.  Ch.  vol.  iii.  p.  223.  '  Ibid.  vol.  iv.  p.  28. 

'  Ranke's  Hist.  Reform,  vol.  ii.  p.  21-39. 
*  Mosheim,  Hist.  Church,  vol.  iii.  p.  48-57. 
»  Walshii  lutrod.  ad  Symb.  p.  886-899. 
31 


242  THE  RAINBOW  ANGEL. 

fenders  of  the  primitive  doctrines  of  Lutheranism,  with  Flacius 
at  their  head,  attacked  with  incredible  bitterness  and  fury  the 
doctors  of  Wittemburg  and  Leipsic,  and  particularly  Melancthon, 
and  accused  them  of  apostasy  from  religion  ;  while  Melancthon, 
on  the  other  hand,  seconded  by  the  zeal  of  his  friends  and  disci- 
ples, justified  his  conduct  with  the  utmost  spirit  and  vigor."* 

That  controversy  gave  birth  to  several  others  respecting  the 
necessity  of  good  works,  the  mode  of  the  regenerating  and  sanc- 
tifying influences  of  the  Spirit,  the  divine  image,  repentance  and 
justification,  that  distracted  the  Lutheran  churches  for  a  long 
series  of  years,  and  were  marked  by  the  utmost  rancor  of  intol- 
erance, vituperation,  and  malignity. 

The  death  of  Melancthon  in  1560,  was  followed  by  disputes 
of  equal  vehemence  respecting  the  doctrines  of  Calvin,  and  those 
succeeded  by  others  occasioned  by  endeavors  to  allay  the  vio- 
lence of  contention  and  re-excite  a  spirit  of  piety,  that  inflamed 
and  devoured  the  church  the  whole  of  the  following  century.^ 

The  Reformed  churches  of  Switzerland,  France,  and  Holland, 
were  agitated  by  nearly  equal  contentions  with  one  another  and 
with  the  Lutherans  during  the  sixteenth  century  respecting  the 
eucharist,  predestination,  the  deity  of  Christ,  and  grace  ;  and  in 
the  following  were  rent  by  Arminius  into  two  great  parties  which 
have  continued  to  war  with  each  other  almost  without  intermis- 
sion to  the  present  day.^ 

The  British  isles  also  have  been  the  scene  of  fierce  and  ran- 
corous contention  from  the  dawn  of  the  Reformation,  two  par- 
ties having  at  every  period  divided  the  established  church — a  pa- 
pal and  a  prolestant,  a  high  and  low  church,  or  a  formal  and  an 
evangelical — that  have  carried  on  a  ceaseless  and  violent  conflict ; 
while  the  dissentients  from  the  days  of  Elizabeth  have  been  dis- 
tributed into  numerous  parties  in  respect  to  doctrine,  rites,  and 
government,  and  wasted  a  large  share  of  their  labor  and  zeal  in 
intemperate  accusations  of  each  other,  reproaches,  and  strifes. 

These  hostile  dispositions  and  quarrels  were  carried  to  such 
an  extreme  tlu'ough  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  that  they  became 
.a  most  important  element  in  the  politics  of  Europe.     While  they 

'  Mosheim,  Hist.  Church,  vol.  iii.  p.  2.34. 

■"  Mosheim,  Hist.  Church,  vol.  iv.  chap.  i. 

^  "  The  Liitheran.s  and  Calvini-sts  stood  opposed  to  each  other  with  a  feeling  of 
mutual  hatred."  "  But  the  Calvinists,  or  as  they  are  called  in  Germany,  the  Re- 
formed Church,  were  also  divided  among  themselves.  Episcopalians  and  Puritans, 
Arminians  and  Gomarists,  attacked  each  other  with  the  tiercest  hate,  and  in  the 
assembly  of  the  Huguenots  at  Saumur  in  IGll,  a  schism  broke  out  which  was 
never  radically  healed."     Rauke's  Reformation,  vol.  ii.  p.  4513,  454. 


THE   RAINBOW  ANGEL.  243 

alienated  the  Protestant  nations  from  each  other,  they  induced 
the  CathoHcs  to  unite  in  assaihng  them,  and  in  several  instances 
placed  both  the  Lutheran  and  the  Reformed  churches  in  immi- 
nent danger  of  extinction. 

V.  Many  of  them  and  their  followers  fulfilled  the  office  of  wit- 
nesses for  God,  in  opposition  to  the  wild  beast  and  false  prophet. 

Lutlier  himself  was  called  in  1521  to  testify  for  God  in  the 
presence  of  Charles  V.  and  the  great  princes  of  the  empire  at 
Worms,  where  he  openly  proclaimed  his  rejection  of  all  rules  of 
faith  and  guides  in  religion  except  the  word  of  God,  reasserted 
the  accusations  he  had  uttered  of  the  pope  and  his  followers,  and 
avowed  his  purpose  inflexibly  to  maintain  the  truth  of  God  what- 
ever opposition  from  princes  or  people  he  might  be  called  to  en- 
counter ;'  and  being  condemned,  and  all  his  adherents,  by  an  edict 
of  the  emperor,  his  writings  and  those  of  his  followers  sentenced 
to  be  burned,  and  a  censoi-ship  of  the  press  established  that  no 
similar  works  might  thereafter  appear,^  was  placed  and  his  whole 
party  in  a  relation  to  the  princes  and  people  by  which  all  their 
proclamations  of  the  Gospel  thereafter  were  made  a  formal  testi- 
mony for  God  in  opposition  to  the  antichristian  povi^ers  ;  and 
great  numbers  were  called  almost  immediately  to  confirm  their 
testimony  with  their  blood. ^ 

The  office  of  witnesses  for  the  truth  was  in  the  year  1529 
assumed  at  the  Diet  of  Spires  by  the  whole  body  of  princes  who 
favored  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  by  a  public  protestation 
against  the  edict  of  that  diet  which  prohibited  all  further  innova- 
tions in  religion,  required  the  evangelical  to  conform  their  instruc- 
tions to  the  doctrines  of  the  Catholic  church,  and  denounced  the 
penalties  of  proscription  and  death  on  those  who  should  violate 
its  injunctions.  From  that  great  act  they  drew  the  name  by 
which  they  and  their  followers  have  ever  since  been  distinguished 
of  Protestants,  which  is  descriptive  of  the  office  ascribed  to  them 
in  this  passage,  of  public  witnesses  against  the  false  doctrines 
of  the  papacy,  and  impious  usurpations  of  the  civil  powers. 

The  office  was  again  fulfilled  by  Luther,  Melancthon,  and  the 
Protestant  princes,  in  a  still  more  emphatic  manner  at  the  diet 

^ '' Since,  great  Coesar  and  illustrious  princes,  you  require  a  specific  answer;  this 
is  my  decision.  Unless  I  am  convinced  by  proofs  from  the  sacred  writings  or  evi- 
dent reason,  I  cannot  recall  any  thing  that  I  have  written,  or  taught,  for  I  cannot 
do  what  would  wound  my  conscience.  On  the  other  hand,  I  have  no  faith  in  the 
Roman  pontitfand  mere  councils,  and  do  not  regard  them  as  of  authority,  for  they 
have  frequently  erred  and  contradicted  themselves  m  their  decrees,  and  are  liable 
to  misjudge  and  be  deceived."     Sleidani  Comment,  lib.  iii.  f.  41. 

'  Rauke's  Hist.  Reform,  vol.  i.  p.  544.  *  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  261. 


244  THE  RAINBOW  ANGEL. 

of  Augsburg  in  ihe  year  1530,  by  the  delivery  to  the  emperor 
and  princes  of  the  Confession  of  their  faith,  in  wliicli  they  avowed 
on  the  one  hand  the  great  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  and  rejected 
on  the  other  the  usurpations,  errors,  and  superstitions  of  the 
apostate  church.  The  like  office  was  fulfilled  also  at  the  same 
time  by  the  Protestants  of  Strasburg,  Constance,  Meminger,  and 
Lindau,  and  by  Zuinglius,  by  the  presentation  to  the  diet  of 
their  Confessions,  in  which  they  avowed  the  evangelical  system, 
and  renounced  the  errors  and  jurisdiction  of  Rome.^ 

The  Augsburg  Confession,  enlarged  and  in  some  degree  varied, 
was  again  presented  to  the  emperor  in  1540. 

The  ministers  of  the  churches  of  Saxony  presented  the  Confes- 
sion of  their  faith  to  the  council  of  Trent.  The  Belgic  churches 
published  theirs  in  1561,  "that  it  might  be  known  what  their 
doctrines  were  who,  in  Flanders,  Arlesia,  and  Hannonia,  had 
suffered,  like  the  Protestants  of  France,  the  most  violent  perse- 
cution from  the  year  1525."^  The  Protestants  of  France  pre- 
sented theirs  to  the  king  and  princes  of  that  kingdom  at  the  con- 
ference of  Poisy  in  1561.  The  ministers  of  many  of  the  Hel- 
vetic churches  drew  up  a  confession  of  their  faith  in  1536,  and 
in  1566  they  generally  united  in  addressing  it  to  the  Protestants 
of  Germany  for  the  purpose  of  making  known  their  views  of  the 
gospel,  and  testifying  against  the  false  doctrines  and  usurpations 
of  Rome.^ 

The  whole  body  of  the  Protestants  on  the  continent  were  thus 
brought,  in  their  relations  to  the  civil  governments  and  in  the 
presence  of  kings,  to  fulfil  the  office  of  witnesses  for  God,  by  a 
public  avowal  of  the  great  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  and  renuncia- 
tion of  the  usurped  dominion,  false  teachings,  and  idolatrous 
worship  of  the  antichristian  church. 

The  same  office  was  fulfilled  also  by  a  vast  body  of  Protest- 
ants in  England  and  Scotland,  who  delivered  a  testimony  to  the 
great  truths  of  the  divine  word  in  the  presence  of  persecuting 
princes  and  a  hostile  people,  maintained  a  contest  for  the  truth 
through  a  century  and  a  half  of  persecution,  and  sealed  in  nu- 
merous instances  their  profession  with  their  blood. 

And  finally,  as  the  wild  beast  still  continues  his  usurpation  of 
the  rights  of  God  and  tyranny  over  the  church,  so  many  of  the 
witnesses  for  God  are  still  fufilling  tlicir  office  by  testifying 
against  that  usurpation,  and  are  to  continue  their  testimony  until 
his  seal  is  set  on  the  foreheads  of  his  servants,  and  they  also  who 

»  Sleidani  Com.  lib.  vii.  f.  lOG,  107. 

'  Syll.  Conl'ess.  p.  xviii.  *  Ibid.  p.  xiv-xvii. 


THE  RAINBOW  ANGEL.  245 

after  that  period  still  linger  among  the  apostates,  are  withdrawn 
from  great  Babylon. 

And  these  characters  meet  in  the  Reformers  and  their  succes- 
sors alone.  The  asseveration  of  the  angel  shows  that  the  gospel 
was  to  be  ihe  theme  of  which  those  whom  he  symbolized  were 
to  treat.  But  since  the  conquest  of  Constantinople,  or  the  period 
of  Tamerlane's  invasion,  there  has  been  no  violent  and  general 
excitement  respecting  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel  answering  at 
all  to  the  representations  of  the  symbol,  except  that  of  the  Re- 
formation ;  an  excitement,  the  authors  of  which  were  most  con- 
spicuous, illustrious,  and  mighty ;  its  subjects  prompted  in  vast 
multitudes  to  free  and  impassioned  utterances  of  opinions  and 
expectations,  and  that  were  essentially  erroneous  in  respect  to 
the  overthrow  of  the  wild  beast  and  advent  of  the  Redeemer  ; 
which  led  to  the  delivery  to  them  of  a  volume  of  such  supreme 
interest  as  to  be  eagerly  received  and  studied  by  them  universal- 
ly, whatever  their  language  ;  which  gave  birth  among  them  to 
bitter  passions  and  contentions  ;  and  yet  whose  doctrines  many 
of  them  faithfully  taught  and  maintained  in  opposition  to  usurp- 
ing civil  rulers  and  ecclesiastics,  and  amidst  the  trials  of  oppres- 
sion by  those  apostate  powers,  persecution,  and  slaughter.  Noth- 
ing that  occurred  in  the  Romish  church  betwixt  the  fall  of  Con- 
stantinople and  tl^e  ministry  of  Luther ;  nothing  that  has  taken 
place  in  that  church  independently  of  the  Reformation  since  that 
event,  has  the  slightest  claims  to  be  regarded  as  the  counterpart 
to  the  symbol.  The  Reformation  is  the  only  great  movement  of 
the  kind,  not  only  during  the  last  four  hundred  years,  but  in  the 
career  of  the  church,  and  has  been  the  cause  of  all  the  subor- 
dinate excitements  and  revolutions  that  have  followed  it,  alike  in 
the  Protestant  and  the  Catholic  communions. 

Interpreters  have  varied  greatly  in  their  views  both  of  the  na- 
ture of  this  symbol,  and  the  events  which  it  foreshows,  and  have 
fallen  generally  into  errors  that  misled  them  in  the  construction 
of  the  chapters  that  immediately  follow.  Grotius  and  Rosen- 
muller  exhibit  the  angel  as  representing  Christ.  But  that  is 
against  the  law  of  symbolization,  there  being  no  analogy  between 
a  creature  and  the  Creator.  Others,  as  Mr.  Brightman,  Mr. 
Jurieu,  Mr.  Whiston,  Cocceius,  Mr.  Cuninghame,  and  Mr.  El- 
liott, regard  the  angel  as  Christ  himself,  which  is  equally  against 
the  law  of  symbolization.  It  is  as  inconsistent  with  his  deity 
and  station  as  the  King  of  kings,  that  he  should  appear  as  a  rep- 
resentative of  creatures,  as  it  is  that  a  creature  should  be  em- 
ployed to  represent  him.     Besides,  whenever  he  appears  in  the 


246  THE  RAINBOW  ANGEL. 

visions,  he  is  expressly  designated  by  liis  titles,  as  the  Alpha  and 
the  Omega,  the  Word  of  God,  or  the  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of 
lords  ;  but  this  agent  is  denominated  an  angel.  The  conjecture 
of  Vilringa  that  he  is  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  obnoxious  to  the  same 
objection. 

Grotius,  Dr.  Hammond,  and  Rosenmuller,  regard  the  seven 
thunders  as  symbols  of  the  calamities  of  the  siege  and  overthrow 
of  Jerusalem  by  Titus,  and  the  greatness  and  dreadfulness  of 
those  calamities,  as  the  reason  that  they  were  not  allowed  to  be 
written.  But  that  assumption  is  both  without  any  ground,  and 
extremely  absurd.  Were  the  horrors  of  that  siege  greater  than 
those  with  which  the  wild  beast  and  false  prophet  are  to  be  over- 
whelmed when  taken  and  cast  alive  into  the  lake  that  burns  with 
fire  and  brimstone  ?  Were  they  greater  than  those  inflicted  on 
the  apostate  hierarchies,  when  the  kings  of  the  earth  eat  their 
flesh  and  burn  them  with  fire  ?  The  thunders  obviously,  from 
the  response  of  the  angel,  are  not  symbols  of  calamities,  but  of 
expressions  from  vast  multitudes  of  thoughts  and  emotions  ex- 
cited by  the  loud  voice  he  had  uttered.  They  have  no  adapta- 
tion to  symbolize  calamities ;  and  finally,  the  siege  and  capture 
of  Jerusalem  were  many  years  anterior  to  the  period  of  the 
visions,  and  cannot  therefore  be  the  subject  of  any  of  the  symbols. 

Cocceius  exhibits  the  thunder  voices  as  merely  indicating  that 
events  were  to  happen  unexpectedly.  But  that  is  to  suppose 
them  symbolic,  not  of  events,  but  only  of  their  characteristics  or 
mode  of  occurrence,  which  is  against  analogy.  Events  and 
agencies  are  symbols  of  events  and  agencies,  not  of  their  charac- 
teristics. If  the  intensity  of  the  symbol  indicate  a  correspond- 
ing intensity  of  the  event  which  it  denotes,  it  must  be  by  some 
analogous  characteristic  :  but  there  obviously  is  no  more  adapta- 
tion in  the  loudness  than  in  the  softness  of  a  voice,  to  indicate 
the  unexpectedness  of  an  event. 

Mr.  Cuninghame  regards  the  angel's  voice  as  symbolic  of  the 
seventh  trumpet,  and  the  thunders  of  the  seven  vials.  But  that 
is  to  make  them  mere  symbols  of  symbols,  which  is  both  against 
analogy,  and  is  to  strike  from  beneath  us  all  grounds  of  assu- 
rance in  their  interpretation.  W^hat  higher  reason  is  there  for 
assuming  that  the  vesture  of  this  angel,  his  actions,  and  the  con- 
sequents of  his  agency  are  mere  symbols  of  the  symbols  of  the 
advent  of  Christ  in  the  clouds,  the  sound  of  the  seventh  trumpet, 
and  the  seven  vials,  than  there  is  for  assuming  that  that  advent, 
that  sound,  and  those  vials,  are  mere  symbols  of  some  other 
symbols  ?     The  admission  of  such  a  species  of  representation 


THE  RAINBOW  ANGEL.  247 

would  annihilate  at  once  all  certainty  of  meaning,  and  render 
the  attempt  alike  absurd,  either  to  interpret  a  revelation  made 
through  such  means,  or  to  make  such  a  revelation. 

Of  those  who  regard  the  angel  as  the  Son  of  God,  some  ex- 
hibit the  opened  book  as  the  book  of  seven  seals,  or  a  part  of  it 
containing  the  revelations  of  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  thirteenth, 
and  fourteenth  chapters.  But  that  proceeds  on  the  assumption 
that  the  sealed  book  was  a  written  copy  of  the  Apocalypse,  and 
not  as  sealed  a  mere  symbol,  and  as  opened,  like  its  seals  and 
the  trumpets,  a  mere  instrument  of  the  revelation.  If  the  sealed 
book  were  an  autograph  of  the  Apocalypse,  why  was  not  the 
apostle  allowed  to  send  it  to  the  churches,  instead  of  indepen- 
dently writing  another  ?  If  that  book  embraced  the  whole 
Apocalypse,  how  can  the  chapters  following  this  vision  have  been 
contained  in  a  different  and  supplemental  volume  ?  On  what 
ground  can  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  fourteenth  chap- 
ters be  considered  as  having  been  delivered  to  the  apostle  and 
eaten  by  him,  any  more  than  the  other  parts  of  the  Revelation  ? 
Those  assumptions  are  manifestly  without  any  authority  what- 
ever, and  involve  their  authors  in  inextricable  perplexities.  The 
book  of  seven  seals  was  a  mere  symbol  of  the  purposes  of  God. 
Its  being  sealed  denoted  the  undiscoverableness  of  his  designs 
by  the  unaided  efforts  of  creatures.  The  opening  of  the  seals 
by  Christ  indicated  the  procedure  of  the  Revelation  from  him, 
and  their  whole  office  was  fulfilled  in  the  representation  of  those 
truths. 

Expositors  exhibiting  the  angel  as  Christ,  interpret  his  station 
on  the  sea  and  the  land,  as  significant  of  his  universal  dominion. 
But  it  has  no  adaptation  to  denote  such  a  relation  ;  and  as  he  is  a 
symbol  of  men,  and  as  teachers,  not  as  rulers,  that  cannot  be  its 
import.  It  doubtless  denotes  a  characteristic  of  their  agency 
whom  he  represented.  His  form  was  gigantic.  He  probably  in 
descending  from  the  atmosphere  advanced  from  the  northwest, 
the  direction  of  Saxony  from  Patmos,  and  alighted  at  the  Adri- 
atic or  ^gean  sea ;  and  his  placing  his  right  foot  on  the  sea,  and 
his  left  on  the  land — which  is  the  attitude  of  one,  not  at  rest,  but 
who  is  still  to  advance — signifies  undoubtedly  that  some  of  those 
whom  he  symbolized  were  to  cross  the  ocean,  and  bear  the  gos- 
pel to  new  isles  and  continents,  and  had  its  fulfilment  in  the  mi- 
gration of  Protestants  to  this  country  and  others,  and  proclama- 
tion of  the  gospel  in  these  distant  scenes.  As  England  was  one 
of  the  seven  kingdoms,  the  migration  cannot  have  been  to  her. 

Mr.  Briffhtman  regards  the  seven  thunders  as  the  seven  vial 


248  THE  RAINBOW  ANGEL. 

angels,  which  is  not  only  without  analogy,  but  is  to  make  them 
mere  symbols  of  the  symbols  of  a  subsequent  vision.  Others, 
as  Dean  Woodhouse,  regard  the  import  of  the  thunder  voices  as 
inspired,  but  concealed  for  reasons  of  sovereignty  or  expedience. 
Mr.  Daubuz,  who  regards  the  angel  as  a  symbol  of  Luther,  and 
the  book  opened  as  the  Scriptures,  interprets  the  thunders  as  the 
edicts  of  seven  governments  establishing  the  Protestant  religion. 
But  the  laws  of  the  Protestant  kingdoms  establishing  the  Re- 
formed religion  were  not  expressive  of  opinions  respecting  the 
period  of  the  overthrow  of  the  wild  beast  or  Christ's  advent,  and 
furnished  no  occasion  therefore  for  the  response  of  the  angel  in 
regard  to  that  advent.  Nor  is  there  any  analogy  between  a  thun- 
der voice,  and  the  enactment  by  rulers  of  a  law.  A  thunder 
crash  is  the  effect  of  a  violent  electrical  explosion,  and  is  itself  a 
rapid  and  strong  vibration  of  the  atmosphere.  The  enactment 
and  promulgation  of  an  authoritative  law  are  deliberate  acts,  and 
designed  to  give  birth  to  order  and  stability.  It  is  the  vehement 
expression  of  passion  by  a  vast  multitude,  not  the  calm  acts  of  a 
legislature  or  monarch,  that  a  thunder  voice  is  suited  to  sym- 
bolize. 

Vitringa  exhibits  the  voice  of  the  angel  as  prophetic  of  calami- 
ties denoted  by  the  seven  thunders,  and  those  thunders  as  em- 
blematic of  the  seven  crusades.  But  first,  the  assumption  that 
the  thunder  voices  were  inspired,  indicative  of  the  same  thing 
as  the  voice  of  the  angel,  and  prophetic  of  calamities,  is  ob- 
viously without  any  ground,  and  against  analogy.  Next,  the 
crusades  preceded  the  last  army  of  the  Turks  and  the  fall  of 
Constantinople,  and  were  several  centuries  therefore  anterior  to 
the  events  denoted  by  this  symbol.  And  finally,  there  is  no  an- 
alogy between  a  thunder  crash,  and  the  march  of  a  devastating 
army.  It  is  the  lightning  which  kills,  rends,  and  burns.  The 
peal  that  follows  is  but  the  vibration  of  the  air  produced  by  its 
passage. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton  exhibits  the  seven  thunders  as  a  repetition  of 
the  prophecy  of  the  seven  trumpets,  which  is  also  wholly  without 
authority,  and  presents  no  reason  for  the  angel's  response. 

Mr.  Elliott,  who  deems  the  angel  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  regards 
the  seven  thunders  as  representing  the  bulls  and  anathemas  of 
the  pope  in  opposition  to  Luther,  and  their  number  as  significant 
of  the  seven  hills  of  Rome.  Those  bulls,  however,  do  not  ex- 
press any  opinion  respecting  the  period  of  the  overthrow  of  the 
wild  beast  and  Christ's  advent,  that  could  give  occasion  to  the  an- 
gel's response.      There  is  no  conceivable  relation  between  a  pa- 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  249 

j.1.11  excommunication  of  Luther  and  an  asseveration  by  the  Son  of 
God  that  his  advent  is  not  to  take  place  till  the  seventh  trumpet, 
nor  is  it  consistent  with  the  majesty  of  Christ  to  exhibit  him  as 
responding  to  the  blasphemous  assumptions  and  execrations  of 
that  apostate  power. 

Mr.  Keith  exhibits  the  angel  as  denoting  the  Reformers,  the 
book  as  representing  the  Scriptures,  and  the  thunders  as  symbols 
of  wars.  But  a  thunder  voice  symbolizes  a  violent  expression  of 
thought  and  feeling,  not  a  battle  onset.  It  is  by  weapons  thai 
men  are  killed,  not  by  voices. 


SECTION  XXV. 

CHAPTER   XI.      1-6. 

THE   TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 


And  a  reed  like  a  rod  was  given  to  me,  saying,  Rise  and  measure 
the  temple  of  God,  and  the  altar,  and  those  who  worship  in  it.  And 
the  court  which  is  without  the  temple  reject,  and  measure  it  not, 
for  it  is  given  to  the  Gentiles,  and  the  holy  city  they  shall  tread  for- 
ty-two months.  And  I  will  give  to  my  two  witnesses,  and  they  shall 
prophesy  a  thousand  two  hundred  and  sixty  days,  clothed  in  sack- 
cloth. They  are  the  two  olive-trees  and  the  two  lamps  which  stand 
before  the  Lord  of  the  earth,  and  if  any  one  wills  to  injure  them,  fire 
proceeds  from  their  mouth,  and  devours  their  enemies  ;  and  if  any 
one  wills  to  injure  them,  so  he  must  be  killed.  They  have  power  to 
shut  heaven  that  rain  may  not  fall  during  the  days  of  their  prophecy, 
and  have  power  over  waters  to  turn  them  to  blood,  and  to  smite  the 
land  with  every  stroke  as  often  as  they  may  will. 

The  scene  of  this  action  was  obviously  the  earth  also,  to  which 
the  apostle  had  descended  to  receive  from  the  rainbow  angel  the 
little  book.  Jerusalem,  with  its  temple  and  courts,  was  display- 
ed, therefore,  before  him.  The  rod,  the  temple,  and  the  measur- 
ing are  symbolic.  The  rod  is  the  symbol  of  the  revealed  will  of 
God,  in  conformity  with  which  the  temple  was  built.  The  tem- 
ple was  the  edifice  erected  by  his  command  in  which  the  worship 
enjoined  by  him  was  to  be  publicly  offered  ;  and  consisted  first  of 
the  holy  of  holies,  in  which  was  his  mercy-seat  or  throne  ;  and  next 
of  the  sanctuary  or  main  part  of  the  structure  in  which  tlie  golden 
candlestick,  the  altar  of  incense,  and  the  table  of  bread  were  sta- 
tioned, and  prayers  were  offered  by  the  priests,  and  hymns  sung 

32 


250  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

by  the  Levites.  As  the  former  symbohzed,  as  we  are  expressly 
told,  Hebrews  ix.  11,  12,  23,  24,  the  heavens,  the  scene  m  which 
God  visibly  manifests  himself,  Christ  intercedes,  and  the  cheru- 
bim, the  representatives  of  the  redeemed,  serve  in  his  presence  ; 
so  the  other  sanctuary  symbolizes  the  place  or  places  on  earth  in 
which  the  true  worshippers  offer  him  the  public  worship  which 
he  enjoins.  The  altar  on  which  incense,  the  symbol  of  prayer, 
was  offered,  represented  the  cross  of  Christ,  the  instrument  of  his 
expiation,^  and  thence  of  reconciliation  and  access  to  God  ;  and 
the  worshippers  denoted  those  who  conduct  the  public  worship 
he  has  appointed,  sustaining  the  same  relations  to  the  place  of 
homage,  and  the  rites  and  worship  that  are  enjoined,  that  the 
priests  and  Levites  sustained  to  the  sanctuary  and  the  services  of 
their  office. 

To  measure  the  temple,  then,  was  to  seek  and  learn  the  truths 
taught  in  the  Scriptures,  and  symbolized,  first  by  the  inner  sanc- 
tuary respecting  the  throne  of  God  in  heaven,  the  exaltation  and 
intercession  of  Christ  in  his  presence,  and  the  relations  to  him 
there  of  the  spirits  of  the  redeemed  denoted  by  the  cherubim  ; 
and  next  the  truths  symbolized  by  the  outer  sanctuary  respecting 
the  place  or  places  on  earth,  which  he  has  appointed  for  the  wor- 
ship which  he  enjoins  on  his  people,  respecting  the  expiation  on 
which  they  are  to  rely  for  pardon  and  acceptance  denoted  by  the 
altar,  and  respecting  the  ministers  who  conduct  the  worship  he 
enjoins,  represented  by  the  offerers  of  the  worship  in  the  sanc- 
tuary. 

The  court  which  was  on  the  outside,  was  that  in  which  the 
congregation  stood  while  incense  was  offered,^  and  denoted  the 
station  of  the  congregation  of  visible  worshippers,  in  contradis- 
tinction from  theirs  who  conduct  the  public  worship.  To  reject  it 
as  nopart  of  the  temple,  was,  therefore,  to  reject  the  body  of  the  nom- 
inal or  visible,  as  not  true  worshippers  ;  and  the  direction  to  reject 
it,  was  equivalent  to  a  prophecy  that  the  nominal  was  not  to  be  a 
true  church  ;  that  the  vast  crowds  who  were  to  throng  the  court 
professedly  to  pay  homage  to  God,  were  not  to  be  his  adorers. 

The  holy  city  was  the  city  in  which  the  ancient  temple  stood, 
and  the  priests  and  daily  worshippers  resided,  and  to  which  those 
dwelling  elsewhere  went  to  offer  homage.  The  prediction,  there- 
fore, that  the  court  without  should  be  given  to  the  Gentiles,  and 
that  they  should  tread  the  holy  city  forty-two  months,  denoted 
that  they  should  constitute  the  congregation  of  visible  worship- 
pers during  that  period,  and  exercise  the  civil  polity  under  which 

» Ara  Crucis.  Concil.  Trident.  Sess.  xxii.  c.  2  ^  Luke  i.  9, 10, 21, 22. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  251 

the  church  should  subsist ;  and  as  during  the  continuance  of  the 
temple  the  Gentiles  were  aliens  from  God  and  idolaters,  in  con- 
tradistinction from  the  Jews  who  were  his  covenant  people,  it  de- 
notes that  the  visible  should  be  an  apostate  and  idolatrous  church 
during  that  period,  and  give  occasion  thereby  for  the  testimony 
of  the  witnesses  to  the  truth,  against  false  teachers,  and  usurping 
and  persecuting  rulers.  This  is  seen  also  from  the  fact  that  the 
Gentiles  have  belonged  to  the  visible  church  and  constituted  it 
solely  for  a  much  longer  period  than  the  forty-two  months*. 
There  has  been  no  purely  Jewish  church  since  the  first  ages. 
The  relation,  therefore,  in  which  the  Gentiles  were  to  constitute 
the  church  during  that  period,  was  not  literally  as  Gentiles  in  op- 
position to  Jews,  but  as  apostates  from  God  In  contradistinction 
from  true  worshippers. 

The  promise  to  give  to  the  two  witnesses,  was  a  promise  of  such 
gifts  to  them  as  were  requisite  to  qualify  them  for  their  office. 
To  prophesy  as  a  witness,  is  to  proclaim  the  revealed  will  of  God 
and  vindicate  his  prerogatives,  in  opposition  to  false  teachers  who 
pervert  and  deny  his  truth,  and  to  rulers  who  usurp  his  rights  and 
arrogate  a  dominion  over  his  people  and  his  laws.  The  period 
of  their  testimony  was  to  correspond  to  the  apostasy  of  the  church, 
twelve  hundred  and  sixty  days,  and  forty-two  months  of  thirty 
days  each,  being  the  same. 

Sackcloth  is  a  symbol  of  humihation  and  sorrow.  Their  proph- 
ecy in  sackcloth  thence  denoted  their  witnessing  for  God  in  hu- 
miliation, under  a  profound  sense  of  his  rights,  and  in  grief  at  the 
apostasy  of  his  professing  people. 

The  two  ohve-trees  and  two  lamps  which  symbolize  the  two 
witnesses,  are  those  doubtless,  or  like  those  exhibited  in  vision 
to  Zechariah,  chap.  iv.  4,  11,  14,  of  which  the  trees  that  distilled 
the  oil  uito  the  lamps  represented  the  teachers,  and  the  lamps 
the  recipients  of  their  doctrine  or  believers.  The  two  witnesses 
are  the  teachers  then  and  the  recipients  of  the  truth,  in  whom  it 
exerts  and  displays  its  power,  as  the  oil  transmitted  from  the  olive- 
trees  to  the  lamps  burned  and  diffused  its  light  througJi  the  tem- 
ple. 

The  representation  that  if  any  one  wills  to  injure  them,  fire 
proceeds  out  of  their  mouth  and  devours  their  enemies,  is  a  pre- 
diction that  they  were  to  defend  themselves  from  their  persecu- 
tors by  their  Avords  as  witnesses  for  God,  and  by  those  alone,  and 
that  the  threatenings  of  vengeance  which  they  were  to  proclaim 
from  his  word  were  to  be  fulfilled  on  their  enemies.  That  they 
were  to  have  power  to  shut  heaven  that  rain  should  not  fall  du- 


252  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

ring  their  prophecy,  and  power  over  waters  to  turn  them  to  blood, 
and  to  smite  the  land  with  every  stroke  as  often  as  they  may 
choose,  denotes  that  the  denunciation  of  terrible  judgments  on 
apostates  was  to  be  an  eminent  part  of  their  office,  as  it  was  of 
Moses  and  Elijah ;  and  that  their  ministry  was  to  receive  from 
God  the  most  evident  sanctions  in  the  destruction  of  those  who, 
in  despite  of  their  teachings  and  warnings,  should  persist  in  apos- 
tasy. 

The  period  denoted  by  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  days,  is  un- 
doubtedly twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years.  There  are  examples 
of  that  use  of  days  in  the  symbolic  prophecies  of  Ezekiel,  chap, 
iv.  4-6,  and  Daniel,  vii.  25,  viii.  14,  xii.  11,  12;  and  it  is  in 
accordance  with  analogy.  A  day,  during  which  the  earth  re- 
volves on  its  axis,  has  a  resemblance  which  fits  it  to  be  a  symbol 
of  the  period  of  its  revolution  round  the  sun  ;  and  it  is  the  only 
period  drawn  from  the  motion  of  the  earth  that  presents  that 
similitude.  All  shorter  spaces  are  artificial  divisions  ;  all  longer 
are  either  artificial,  as  jubilees  and  centuries,  or  founded,  like 
cycles,  on  relations  to  other  celestial  bodies  that  bear  no  analogy 
to  a  revolution  round  the  sun.  It  is  the  only  period  therefore 
formed  by  the  earth's  motion,  that  could  be  used  to  symbolize  a 
year.  That  it  is  to  be  treated  as  symbolic,  is  indisputably  cer- 
tain. It  is  unquestionably  a  measure  of  time.  But  if  a  measure 
of  time,  it  is  of  necessity  a  symbolic  measure  ;  inasmuch  as  the 
agency  which  it  measures  is  symbolic.  Founded  altogether  as 
the  symbol  is  on  analogy,  it  must  be  interpreted  throughout  in 
accordance  with  that  relation.  To  deny  that  character  to  any 
part  of  it,  were  in  effect  to  deny  it  to  the  whole  ;  while  to  admit 
that  the  measure  of  the  witnesses'  agency  is  symbolic,  and  yet 
interpret  it  literally,  were  to  assume  that  the  symbol  is  identically 
the  same  as  that  which  it  represents,  which  is  against  analogy. 

In  like  manner  a  month,  during  which  the  moon  revolves  on 
its  axis,  has  a  resemblance  which  fits  it  to  be  the  symbol  of  a 
proportionable  number  of  years,  and  that  is  the  only  longer 
period  to  which  it  presents  that  similitude.  The  forty-two 
months  therefore  are  by  the  same  law  twelve  hundred  and  sixty 
years,  and  solar  years  doubtless  ;  as  though  the  monthly  division 
of  time  was  drawn  from  the  revolution  of  the  moon,  yet  it  was 
reckoned  as  of  thirty  as  well  as  of  twenty-nine  days,  and  the  year 
itself  was  determined  by  the  revolution  of  the  earth  round  the 
sun. 

It  may  be  thought  an  obstacle  to  this  construction,  that  as  the 
period  of  a  lunar  revolution  is  not  thirty  days,  forty-two  lunar 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  253 

months  are  not  equal  to  'twelve  hundred  and  sixty  days.  But 
neither  are  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  days  equal  to  the  number 
in  three  and  a  half  years,  nor  the  number  in  forty-two  months  of 
thirty  days  each  equal  to  the  number  in  three  years  and  a  half ; 
the  astronomical  year  consisting  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-five 
days  and  a  fraction,  in  place  of  three  hundred  and  sixty,  at 
which  it  was  reckoned  by  the  Jews  and  other  eastern  nations. 
Yet  three  hundred  and  sixty  days  were  taken  as  the  period  of  the 
revolution  of  the  seasons  or  a  year,  although  they  were  known 
not  to  be  the  true  period  ;  and  thirty  days  were  taken  also  as  the 
period  of  a  lunar  revolution  or  a  month,  although  they  were  in 
like  manner  known  not  to  be  the  true  period ;  and  they  are  used 
interchangeably  accordingly  for  the  same  period,  and  employed 
with  equal  propriety  as  a  representative  of  twelve  hundred  and 
sixty  astronomical  years. 

The  command  to  measure  the  temple  of  God,  was  addressed 
to  the  apostle  doubtless,  as  representing  the  same  persons  as 
he  symbolized  in  the  prediction  that  he  must  again  prophesy 
before  peoples,  and  nations,  and  tongues,  and  many  kings  ;  and 
his  action  denoted  that  they  were  to  seek  and  learn,  first,  the 
truths  which  the  Scriptures  teach,  and  that  were  symbolized  by 
the  inner  sanctuary,  respecting  the  throne  of  God,  the  interces- 
sions of  Christ,  and  the  residence  of  the  spirits  of  the  redeemed 
in  his  presence  ;  and  next,  the  truths  that  were  symbolized  by  the 
outer  sanctuary  respecting  the  expiation  on  which  the  true  wor- 
shippers on  earth  rely  for  pardon  and  acceptance,  the  places  in 
which  acceptable  worship  is  offered,  and  the  ministers  who  offer 
that  worship. 

The  prediction,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  witnesses  were  to 
prophesy  forty-two  months  against  persecutors,  was  a  prediction 
that  they  were  to  proclaim  those  truths  and  vindicate  the  rights 
of  God  against  false  teachers  and  usurping  rulers,  and  denounce 
the  judgments  threatened  in  his  word  against  their  usurpations 
and  idolatries. 

The  agency  symbolized  by  the  measuring  of  the  temple,  had  a 
most  exact  and  conspicuous  counterpart  ni  the  ministry  of  the 
Reformers  and  their  successors.  The  great  truths  which  they 
drew  from  the  Scriptures,  and  proclaimed  in  opposition  to  the 
apostate  church,  were  precisely  those  which  were  symbolized 
by  the  inner  and  outer  sanctuary  ; — that  God  alone  has  the  rights 
of  deity,  and  is  the  only  object  of  worship,  in  opposition  to  anti- 
christ, to  canonized  creatures,  and  to  idols  ;  that  Christ's  sacrifice 
is  the  only  expiation  for  sin,  in  contradiction  to  the  sacrifice  of  the 


254  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

mass,  and  voluntary  inflictions ;  that  he  is  the  only  interces«or, 
in  opposition  to  saints  and  angels  ;  that  the  spirits  of  the  re- 
deemed pass  immediately  into  his  presence  and  are  accepted  and 
exalted  to  happiness,  in  contravention  of  the  doctrine  of  purga- 
tory ;  that  acceptable  worship  is  offered  wherever  two  or  three 
gather  together  in  the  name  of  Christ,  in  contradiction  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  apostate  church,  that  homage  can  be  offered  only 
in  edifices  consecrated  by  superstitious  riles,  sanctified  by  the 
presence  of  relics,  and  furnished  with  an  altar,  images  of  saints, 
and  other  idolatrous  objects  ;  and  finally,  that  they  are  legitimate 
offerers  of  worship  who  are  publicly  set  apart  to  that  office,  and 
who  proclaim  the  truths  and  present  the  homage  which  God  en- 
joins in  his  word,  in  opposition  to  the  teachers  of  the  apostate 
church,  who  regard  those  alone  as  true  ministers  who  derive 
their  authority  from  the  pope,  or  from  patriarchs,  metropolitans, 
or  diocesan  bishops. 

I.  They  learned  from  the  Scriptures  and  proclaimed  the  truths 
symbolized  by  the  mercy-seat,  that  God  alone  fills  the  throne  of 
the  universe,  and  has  the  rights  of  deity,  in  opposition  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  apostate  church,  that  the  pope  is  his  vicegerent, 
and  is  invested  with  all  his  legislative  and  judicial  rights. 

The  mode  in  which  the  rights  of  God  were  arrogated  by  the 
popes  and  ascribed  to  ihem  by  the  church,  is  shown  by  the 
following  passages.  "  We  agree  that  the  holy  apostolic  chair 
and  Roman  pontiff  hold  the  primacy  over  the  whole  world,  and 
that  the  Roman  pontiff  himself  is  the  successor  of  the  blessed 
Peter,  the  prince  of  the  apostles  and  the  true  vicar  of  Christ,  the 
head  of  the  whole  church,  and  the  father  and  teacher  of  all  Chris- 
tians, and  that  through  the  blessed  Peter,  plenary  power  was 
given  to  him  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  feed,  guide,  and  govern 
the  universal  church."^ 

In  assuming  to  be  the  vicar  of  Christ  on  earth,  the  pope  claims 
to  be  invested  with  his  rights  and  prerogatives  as  the  king,  the 
lawgiver,  and  the  judge  of  the  church,  and  thence  to  be  entitled 
to  the  same  absolute  submission  and  obedience  from  men  as  are 
due  to  him.  "  If  the  pontiff  be  compared  to  Christ  in  respect  to 
plenitude  of  power,  he  has  not  that  absolute  plenitude,  but  only 
his  own  peculiar  portion,  according  to  the  measure  of  Christ's 
gift :  for  Christ  reigns  over  the  whole  church  whether  in  heaven, 
in  purgatory,  or  on  earth,  embracing  all  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end  of  the  world  ;  and  can  moreover  make  laws  at  his  pleas- 
ure, institute  sacraments,  and  confer  grace  even  without  sacra- 

^  Definit.  Concil.  Floreut.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xxxi.  p.  1031. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  255 

ments  ;  but  the  pope  only  governs  this  part  of  the  church  which 
is  on  earth  while  he  lives,  and  cannot  change  the  laws  of  Christ, 
institute  sacraments,  or  remit  sins  without  a  sacrament.  If,  how- 
ever, the  supreme  pontiff  be  compared  with  other  bishops,  he 
may  be  justly  said  to  have  a  plenitude  of  power  ;  for  others  have 
only  a  limited  authority  over  limited  districts,  but  he  is  placed 
over  the  whole  Christian  world,  and  has  all  the  plenary  power 
which  Christ  left  for  the  benefit  of  the  chuixh  on  earth. "^ 

"  The  church  is  a  fold,  a  kingdom,  a  body.  But  a  fold  must 
have  a  shepherd,  a  kingdom  a  king,  a  body  a  head.  Some  one 
therefore  must  succeed  St.  Peter  in  the  primacy.  It  cannot  be 
said  that  Christ  is  the  head  and  king  of  the  church.  Christ  is 
indeed  the  invisible  head  of  the  church  ;  but  inasmuch  as  the 
church  is  a  visible  and  outward  society,  it  must  have  a  visible 
and  outward  head  succeeding  to  Peter  in  the  pontificate,  whose 
office  it  is  to  exercise  an  outward  care  of  the  whole  family  or 
society."^ 

The  pope  accordingly  claims  and  is  held  by  the  Catholic 
church  to  have  Christ's  power  as  a  lawgiver  :  "  Our  inquiry  is 
whether  the  pope  has  a  real  power  over  all  the  faithful  in  spirit- 
ual things,  as  kings  have  in  temporal ;  that  as  they  can.  frame 
civil  laws,  and  punish  transgressors  with  temporal  punishments, 
so  the  pontiff  can  enact  ecclesiastical  laws  truly  obligatory  on 
the  conscience,  and  punish  transgressors  with  at  least  spiritual 
punishments,  such  as  excommunication,  suspension,  an  interdict:" 
and  the  answer  is,  that  "  it  has  ever  been  held  by  the  Catholic 
church,  that  bishops  in  their  own  dioceses,  and  the  Roman  pon- 
tiff in  the  whole  church,  are  true  ecclesiastical  princes,  who  can 
by  their  own  authority,  without  the  consent  of  the  people  or  con- 
currence of  the  presbyters,  enact  laws  which  bind  the  conscience, 
judge  in  ecclesiastical  causes  in  the  manner  of  other  judges,  and 
inflict  punishments.""* 

Bouvier  in  like  manner  enumerates  among  the  prerogatives  of 
the  pontiff,  the  power  of  issuing  doctrinal  decrees,  and  enacting 
laws  which  are  obligatory  on  all  Christians.^ 

'  Bellarmiiii  de  Rom.  Pont.  lib.  i.  c.  ix.  p.  536. 

*  Bailly,  de  Eccl.  toin.  ii.  p.  174. 

'  At  in  ecclesia  Catiiolica  semper  creditum  est,  episcopos  in  siiis  dioecesibus,  et 
Romanum  pontificem  in  tota  ecclesia  esse  veros  principes  ecclesiasticos,  qui  pos- 
sint  sua  aucloritate  etiam  sine  plebis  consensu,  vel  presbyterorum  concilio,  leges 
ferre  quaj  in  conscientia  obligent,  judicare  in  causis  ecclesiasticis,  more  aliorum 
judicum,  ac  demum  pnnire.     Beliannini  do  Rom.  Pont.  lib.  iv.  c.  xv.  pp.  845,  846. 

*  Bouvier,  de  Vera  Eccl.  p.  309.  PrBerogativa  tcrtia  est,  Potestas  edendi  decreta 
fidej  et  condendl  leges  quiB  cunctos  obligent  Christianos. 


256  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

He  claims  in  like  manner  the  power  of  forgiving  sins,  and  of 
debarring  from  forgiveness.  "  He  is  said  to  loose  who  remits 
sins,  who  frees  from  punishment,  who  exempts  from  law  in  re- 
spect to  vows,  oaths,  and  similar  obligations.  When,  therefore, 
it  was  said  to  Peter  generally,  Whatsoever  you  loose  or  bind, 
the  power  was  given  him  of  legislating,  rescinding,  punishing, 
remitting,  so  that  he  became  the  judge  and  prince  of  all  who  are 
in  the  church."^ 

"Should  any  one  say  the  words  of  the  Saviour,  '  Receive  the 
Holy  Spirit;  whosesoever  sins  ye  remit  they  are  remitted  to  them, 
and  whosesoever  ye  retain,  they  are  retained,'  are  not  to  be  un- 
derstood of  the  power  of  remitting  or  retaining  sins  by  the  sa- 
crament of  penance,  as  the  Catholic  church  has  always  held,  and 
shall  turn  them  against  the  institution  of  this  sacrament,  to  the 
authorization  of  preaching  the  gospel,  let  him  be  accursed."^ 

But  in  this  arrogation  the  pope  usurps  the  incommunicable 
rights  and  prerogatives  of  God.  He  openly  claims  that  he  holds 
in  the  church  on  earth  the  station  of  the  eternal  Word,  exhibits 
himself  as  seated  on  his  throne,  and  demands  a  homage  that  is 
due  only  to  him.  And  that  is  the  peculiar  characteristic  of  the 
great  rival  of  Christ,  the  man  of  sin,  the  son  of  perdition,  as  de- 
scribed by  the  pen  of  inspiration,  who  is  hostile  and  contemptuous 
towards  all  that  is  called  divine  or  that  is  venerable,  so  that  he 
seats  himself  in  the  temple  of  God  as  the  Almighty  sat  in  the 
inner  sanctuary,  and  proclaims  that  he  is  God  by  the  assumption 
of  his  throne  and  arrogation  of  his  rights. 

The  Reformers  accordingly  discerned  and  denounced  this  im- 
pious arrogation,  and  embraced  and  proclaimed  the  doctrine  of 
the  Scriptures,  that  God  alone  is  the  lawgiver,  king,  and  judge 
of  the  church. 

Luther  devoted  his  tract  respecting  the  power  of  the  Roman 
pontiff  to  the  refutation  of  his  claims  and  vindication  of  the  pre- 
rogatives of  God,  pronouncing  it  blasphemy  to  represent  that 
Peter  held  the  rights  of  a  divine  sway,  asserting  that  he  was  but 
a  mere  minister  of  the  word,  and  that  Christ  is  the  sole  Lord  of 
the  church  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  and  showing  that  the  lofty 
terms  empire,  the  rights  of  empire,  and  celestial  and  terrestrial 
empire,  are  appropriate  only  to  God,  and  that  in  applying  them 
to  the  pope  they  made  him  a  deity .-^  He  accordingly  denovmced 
the  pope  as  antichrist,  and  the  papal  hierarchy  as  the  kingdom 

'  Bellarmini  de  Rom.  Pont.  lib.  i.  c.  .xiii.  p.  558. 

*  Coiicil.  Trident,  sess.  xiv.  de  Sacraraen.  Pcenit.  can.  3. 

'  Lutlieri  Op.  torn.  i.  f.  304, 305. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  257 

of  that  rival.  "  I  assent  to  the  impudent  boast  of  the  sacerdotal 
order,  that  they  have  separated  themselves  from  the  church  of 
God  and  exercise  a  despotism  over  it ;  for  it  is  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  tliat  which  I  allege,  that  the  church  of  the  pope  is  the 
kingdom  of  antichrist,  which  opposes,  and  exalts  itself  above 
God,  and  all  that  is  divine,  and  as  God  seats  itself  in  his  tem- 
ple."i 

Leo  X.  accordingly,  in  his  bull  against  Luther,  alleges  it  as 
one  of  the  grounds  of  condemning  him,  that  he  asserted  that  the 
Roman  pontiff,  the  successor  of  Peter,  was  not  constituted  the 
vicar  of  Christ  over  all  the  churches  of  the  world.^ 

Melanclhon,  in  like  manner,  denominates  the  papal  kingdom 
the  kingdom  of  antichrist.^  And  Calvin  :  "Daniel  and  Paul  fore- 
told that  antichrist  was  to  put  himself  in  the  temple  of  God.  We 
regard  the  Roman  pontiff  as  the  head  of  that  abominable  king- 
dom."'*    And  such  were  the  views  of  all  the  Reformers.^ 

They  denounced  his  assumption  of  legislative  and  judicial  au- 
thority over  the  church  as  a  usurpation.  "  The  church  can  have 
no  other  head  than  Christ."  "  We  do  not  approve  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Roman  clergy  who  make  their  Roman  pontiff  the 
universal  pastor  and  supreme  head  of  the  Catholic  church  mili- 
tant on  earth,  and  thence  the  true  vicar  of  Christ,  having  a  pleni- 
tude of  power,  as  they  express  themselves,  and  absolute  do- 
minion over  the  church.  But  we  teach  that  Christ  is  Lord,  and 
is  to  continue  the  only  universal  pastor  and  high-priest  in  the 
presence  of  God  the  Father,  and  to  fulfil  all  the  offices  of  high- 
priest  and  pastor  to  the  end  of  the  world,  and  therefore  needs  no 
vicar,  who  is  the  representative  only  of  one  that  is  absent,  but 
Christ  is  present  with  the  church  and  its  vivifying  head."* 
"  Bishops  have  not  the  power  of  enacting  any  thing  contrary  to 
the  gospel."  "  It  is  not  lawful  for  any  creatures,  whether  angels 
or  men,  kings  or  bishops,  to  institute  laws  or  rites  that  are  at  war 
with  the  word  of  God."' 

And  as  they  thus  held  God  to  be  the  only  religious  lawgiver, 
so  they  held  the  Scriptures  to  be  the  only  rule  of  faith.  "The 
canonical  Scripture — the  word  of  God,  revealed  by  the  Holy 

*  Lutheri  Op.  torn.  i.  f.  513. 

'  Lutheri  Op.  torn.  i.  f.  478.  Romanus  pontifex  Petri  successor,  non  est  Christi. 
vicarius  super  omnes  totius  mundi  ecclesias  ab  ipso  Christo  in  B.  Petro  institutus. 

^  Melancthoni  Op.  torn.  ii.  p.  451.  *  Cal.  Inst.  lib.  iv.  c.  ii.  s.  12. 

'  Bellarmini  de  Rom.  Pont.  lib.  iii.  c.  i.  p.  701.         '  Confess.  Helvet.  c.  xvii. 

'  Confess.  August,  de  Potest.  Eccl.  So  also  the  Saxon :  Est  igitur  prima  regula  ;, 
nuUi  creaturae,  non  angelis,  non  hominibus,  non  regibus,  non  episcopis,  licet  coiidere 
leges  aut  ritus  pugnantes  cum  verbo  Dei.     Sax.  Confess,  c.  xx.  de  Tradit 

33 


258  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

Spirit  and  communicated  to  the  world  through  prophets  and 
apostles — alone  contains  the  whole  of  religion  and  the  whole 
law  of  life,  and  its  import  is  to  be  sought  from  itself  alone,  by 
making  it  its  own  interpreter."^ 

They  thus,  in  respect  to  the  mercy-seat,  fulfilled  the  symbol 
of  measuring  the  inner  temple,  by  exhibiting  God  as  alone  filling 
the  throne  of  the  universe,  and  vindicating  his  incommunicable 
prerogatives  as  the  lawgiver  of  his  kingdom. 

II.  They  learned  from  the  Scriptures,  and  proclaimed  the 
truths  symbolized  also  by  the  inner  temple,  that  God  is  the  only 
object  of  worship,  in  contradistinction  from  creatures  and  ima- 
ges, to  which  the  apostate  church  oflfered  her  homage. 

The  pontiffs  not  only  encouraged  and  enjoined  the  worship  of 
saints  and  angels,  but  assumed  the  power  of  declaring  who  of 
the  dead  were  saints,  and  constituting  them  objects  of  homage. 
*'  Canonization  is  nothing  else  than  the  public  testimony  of  the 
church  to  the  true  sanctity  and  glory  of  one  who  has  died,  with 
a  judgment  and  decree  by  which  the  honors  are  assigned  to  him 
that  are  due  to  those  who  reign  happily  with  God.  And  those 
honors  are  seven.  For  first,  they  who  are  canonized  are  in- 
scribed in  the  catalogue  of  the  saints,  and  it  is  ordered  that  they 
shall  by  all  be  publicly  held  and  denominated  saints.  Next, 
they  are  to  be  invoked  in  the  public  prayers  of  the  church. 
Thirdly,  temples  and  altars  are  to  be  dedicated  to  God  in  mem- 
ory of  them.  Fourthly,  sacrifices,  as  well  of  the  eucharist,  as 
of  praises  and  prayers  which  are  commonly  called  the  service, 
or  canonical  hours,  are  to  be  publicly  offered  to  God  in  their 
honor.  Fifthly,  festal  days  are  to  be  celebrated  in  their  memo- 
ry. Sixthly,  their  likenesses  are  to  be  painted  and  crowned  with 
rays  of  light,  in  token  of  the  glory  to  which  they  are  exalted  in 
heaven.  And  finally,  their  relics  are  to  be  enclosed  in  costly 
shrines,  and  publicly  honored." 

"  In  regard  to  the  question  to  whom  does  the  power  belong  of 
canonizing  the  saints,  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  a  person  may  be 
canonized  in  two  modes  ; — in  one  particularly,  so  that  he  may  be 
held  and  worshipped  as  a  saint  only  in  a  single  province  or  dio- 
cese ; — in  the  other  generally,  so  that  he  may  be  held  by  the 
whole  church  to  be  a  saint,  and  no  one  have  leave  to  doubt  of 
his  saintship.  In  the  first  mode  any  bishop  has  the  right  to 
canonize.  But  Alexander  III.  and  Innocent  III.,  perceiving  the 
abuses  that  arose  from  that  mode  of  canonization,  forbid  that  any 
one  should  thereafter  be  made  the  object  of  worship,  except  with 

»  Confess.  Hclvet.  c.  1,  2. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  259 

the  approbation  of  the  Roman  pontiff,  to  whom  it  is  universally 
held  the  power  belongs  of  canonizing  in  the  second  manner,  so 
that  persons  shall  be  held  as  saints  by  the  whole  church."^ 

The  Bullarium  Magnum  contains,  accordingly,  many  of  the 
decrees  by  which,  "after  sacred  hymns,  litanies,  and  invocations 
of  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  pontiff  proceeds,  in  order  to 
the  honor  of  the  most  holy  and  indivisible  Trinity,  the  exaltation 
of  the  Catholic  faith,  and  the  augmentation  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, by  the  authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  blessed 
apostles  Peter  and  Paul,  and  with  the  counsel  of  the  cardinals, 
patriarchs,  archbishops,  and  bishops  of  the  city,  to  declare  the 
subject  of  the  canonization  a  saint,  inscribe  him  in  the  catalogue 
of  the  saints,  and  enact  that  on  the  day  of  his  death  every  year, 
the  commemoration  of  him  among  the  holy  confessors  shall  be 
observed  by  the  whole  church  with  a  pious  homage."^ 

In  conformity  with  this  legalization  of  the  worship  of  saints, 
pictures,  or  images  and  relics,  the  council  of  Trent  enjoined  all 
bishops  and  other  teachers  to  instruct  the  faithful  to  invoke  the 
saints,  honor  their  relics,  and  worship  their  images.^  And  all 
who  are  inducted  into  the  sacred  office  in  that  church,  are  re- 
quired to  assent  to  the  creed  of  Pius  IV.,  which  asserts  that  the 
saints  who  reign  with  Christ  are  to  be  worshipped  and  invoked, 
that  they  offer  prayer  to  God  for  us,  that  their  relics  are  to  be 
venerated,  and  that  the  images  of  Christ,  the  ever  virgin  mother 
of  God,  and  other  saints,  are  to  be  kept  and  treated  with  honor 
and  veneration.* 

But  this  worship  the  Reformers  saw  was  wholly  unauthorized 
by  the  Scriptures,  and  an  open  and  formal  idolatry.  Thus  Lu- 
ther, in  his  Babylonian  Captivity,  represents  the  papal  doctrines 
respecting  the  homage  of  the  saints  as  adverse  to  the  worship  of 
God,  and  denounces  the  pontiffs  as  mere  ministers  of  golden 
calves,  total  strangers  to  the  divine  law,  wholly  unacquainted 
with  the  gospel,  ignorant  of  the  duty  of  pastors,  and  teaching 
nothing  except  their  own  inventions.^  In  like  manner  Melanc- 
thon  :  "  The  invocation  of  the  dead,  as  is  customary  in  what  is 
called  the  worship  of  the  saints,  is  manifestly  a  mad  idolatry."® 
"  It  is  a  palpable  abuse  to  conceive  of  the  saints  as  auxiliaries 
who  cure  diseases,  avert  dangers,  or  fight  battles,  as  is  pretended 
of  St.  George,  since  they  are  works  of  which  God  alone  is  th' 

'  Bellarmini  de  Sanct.  Beatit.  lib.  i.  c.  vii.  viii.  pp.  699-701. 

•  Bullar.  Mag.  Decret.  ii.  Innocentii  XII.  torn.  vi.  p.  128. 

•  Concil.  Trident.  Sess.  xxv.  de  Invocat.  *  Syll.  Confess,  p.  5 

•  De  Captivit.  Bab.  torn.  ii.  f.  277.  '  Melancth.  Op.  torn.  iv.  p.  531 


260      '        THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

author.  It  is  a  heathen  madness  to  ascribe  particular  offices  to 
certain  saints,  or  imagine  that  a  saint  hears  prayers  addressed  to 
one  statue  rather  than  another.'"'  "  All  worships  are  idolatrous 
that  are  instituted  without  a  command  from  God.  The  first  pre- 
cept is,  Thou  shall  have  no  foreign  gods,  which  is  to  be  under- 
stood not  only  of  formal  idolatry,  such  as  the  worship  of  statues, 
but  of  all  human  worships,  which  are  necessarily  idolatrous,  in- 
asmuch as  they  are  instituted  in  opposition  to  this  command."^ 
"  Invocation  is  an  honor  that  is  to  be  rendered  to  God  only,  the 
eternal  Father,  the  Son  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit."  "  They  who  invoke  God  should  offer  their  prayers 
through  the  Son.  But  the  custom  of  invoking  men  who  have 
departed  from  life,  is  to  be  rejected  and  denounced  as  transfer- 
ring to  them  the  glory  which  is  due  only  to  God,  ascribing  to 
them  omniscience  and  omnipotence,  and  obscuring  the  glory  of 
Christ,  by  attributing  to  them  his  office  as  Mediator.  We  alto- 
gether condemn,  therefore,  the  custom  of  invoking  saints  who 
have  departed  from  this  life."^ 

So  also  the  Helvetian  Confession  :  "  We  teach  that  the  true 
God  is  alone  to  be  adored  and  worshipped,  according  to  the  com- 
mand, Thou  shalt  adore  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  worship  and 
serve  him  alone.  We  therefore  do  not  worship  nor  invoke  the 
saints  in  heaven,  nor  acknowledge  them  as  our  intercessors  or 
mediators  in  the  presence  of  the  Father,  for  God  and  Christ  the 
Mediator  suffice  for  us."^  The  sole  right  of  God  to  the  homage 
of  creatures,  and  the  idolatry  of  exalting  the  saints  to  the  station 
of  mediators,  were  principal  themes,  in  like  manner,  of  the  pub- 
lic teachings  and  writings  of  Calvin,  and  all  the  other  Reform- 
ers.® Thus  they  measured  the  inner  temple  as  the  symbol  of 
the  heavenly  sanctuary,  in  which  the  Self-existent  alone  is  en- 
throned as  God,  and  has  the  rights  of  homage  from  worshippers. 

III.  They  learned  from  the  word  of  God,  and  proclaimed  the 
truth  symbolized  by  the '  altar,  that  Christ's  sacrifice  is  the  only 
expiation  for  sin,  in  opposition  to  the  expiations  of  the  apostate 
church  by  masses  and  penances. 

The  Catholics  held  that  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  is  efficacious 
only  for  the  sins  that  precede  baptism,  and  that  expiations  were 

'  Act.  Worm.  op.  torn.  iv.  p.  678. 

*  Ennar.  in  Psal.  114,  torn.  ii.  p.  807.  Constat  aiitem  banc  verfe  esse  idolatriam 
cum  pro  Deo  colitur  quod  non  est  Deus,  aut  cum  Deus  alius  fingitur  quam  est. 

'  Confess.  August,  c.  xxi.     Syll.  Confess,  p.  188.  *  Syll.  Confess,  pp.  23,  24. 

'  Cal.  Inst.  lib.  i.  c.  xiv.  s.  12,  lib.  iii.  c.  xx.  s.  20,  21,  22,  23.  Sax.  Confess.  Syll. 
Confess,  p.  307.  Chemnicii  Exam.  Concil.  Trident,  pr.  iii.  de  Invocat.  Sauct. 
pp.  140-227. 


THE  TEMPLE   AND   WITNESSES.  261 

made  for  subsequent  transgressions  by  the  mass,  and  satisfactions 
by  penances.  Thus  the  Council  of  Trent :  "  Inasmuch  as  in 
the  divine  sacrifice  which  is  offered  in  the  mass,  the  same  Christ 
is  contained  and  is  immolated  without  blood,  who  once  offered 
himself  with  blood  on  the  altar  of  tlie  cross,  this  holy  synod  teach- 
es that  that  sacrifice  is  truly  propitiatory,  and  that  if  we  approach 
God  contritely  and  penitently,  with  a  true  heart,  a  right  faith, 
with  fear  and  awe,  we  shall  obtain  compassion  through  it,  and 
find  grace  opportunely  for  us,  the  Lord  being  propitiated  by  the 
oblation  of  it,  and  granting  favor  and  forgiving  sins  even  that  are 
great ;  for  it  is  one  and  the  same  victim  that  is  now  offered  by  the 
ministry  of  the  priests,  who  then  offered  himself  on  the  cross. 
The  fruits  indeed  of  his  bloody  oblation  are  most  abundantly  ac- 
quired through  this,  which  is  without  blood,  so  far  is  it  from  der- 
ogating in  any  manner  from  that ;  and  therefore  it  is  to  be  offered 
not  only  for  the  sins,  punishments,  satisfactions,  and  other  needs 
of  living  believers,  but  for  the  dead  in  Christ  also  who  are  not  yet 
fully  purified,"^ 

"  If  all  the  regenerate  had  such  gratitude  to  God,  that  they  al- 
ways preserved  the  rectitude  which  they  receive  by  his  grace  in 
baptism,  there  would  be  no  necessity  that  another  sacrament  be- 
sides that  should  be  instituted  in  order  to  the  remission  of  sins. 
But  God  who  is  rich  in  mercy  and  knows  our  nature,  provided  a 
remedy  for  those  who  should  afterwards  yield  themselves  to  the 
service  of  sin  and  power  of  Satan,  in  the  sacrament  of  penance, 
by  which  the  benefit  of  Christ's  death  is  applied  to  those  who  fall 
after  baptism."^ 

'*  The  Catholic  church  teaches  and  has  always  taught  that  the 
sacrifice  of  the  mass  is  not  only  a  propitiation  for  punishments, 
but  for  sins  also,  and  for  great  as  well  as  small ;  and  that  it  is  the 
means  of  procuring  not  only  spiritual  benefits,  but  temporal  also, 
and  may,  therefore,  be  offered  for  sins,  for  punishments,  and  for 
all  other  necessities."^  "  A  satisfaction  is  nothing  else  than  an 
action  by  which  he  who  has  injured  another,  does  as  much  as  is 
sufficient  to  compensate  for  the  injury,  or  as  much  as  he  who  is 
injured  justly  exacts."*  "  Although  we  acknowledge  that  chas- 
tisements inflicted  by  God,  if  borne  with  equanimity,  are  of  no 
small  service  towards  a  satisfaction,  yet  the  term  more  properly 
denotes  labors  that  are  voluntarily  assumed  or  imposed  by  a  spir- 
itual judge,  to  make  compensation  to  God  for  injuries."^ 

'  Concil.  Trident,  sese.  xxii.  de  Sacrif.  M.  c.  2.  '  Ibid.  Bess.  xiv.  c.  1. 

*  Bellarmini  de  Missa,  lib.  ii.  c.  1,  torn.  iii.  pp.  795,  796. 

*  Ibid,  do  PcEuit.  lib.  iv.  c.  1,  torn.  iii.  p.  1087.     *  Ibid.  lib.  iv.  c.  12,  torn.  iii.  p.  11 ,.?. 


^62  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

"  If  any  one  shall  say  that  a  true  and  proper  sacrifice  is  not 
offered  to  God  in  the  mass,  or  that  the  offering  is  nothing  else 
than  that  Christ  is  given  to  be  received  by  us  by  the  hand,  let 
him  be  accursed."^ 

"  If  any  one  shall  say  that  penance  in  the  Catholic  church  is 
not  a  true  and  proper  sacrament  for  believers,  instituted  by  Christ 
in  order  to  their  reconciliation  to  God  as  often  as  they  fall  into 
sin  after  baptism,  let  him  be  anathema."' 

"  If  any  one  shall  say  that  the  satisfactions  by  v^rhich  the  pen- 
itent purchase  release  from  sin  through  Jesus  Christ,  are  not  of 
divine  institution,  but  are  traditions  of  men  that  obscure  the  doc- 
trine of  grace,  the  true  worship  of  God,  and  the  benefit  itself  of 
Christ's  death,  let  him  be  accursed."^ 

But  these  false  and  impious  doctrines  the  Reformers  rejected, 
and  taught  that  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  is  the  only  expiation  for  sin. 
Thus  Melanclhon  :  "  That  sacrifice  which  pacified  the  wrath  of 
God  against  the  sins  of  men,  was  the  price  for  sin,  and  procured 
reconciliation,  grace,  and  eternal  life,  was  the  death  alone  of  the 
Son  of  God,  who  offered  himself  to  the  eternal  Father,  and  was 
himself  the  high  priest  of  his  oblation."^  "  There  is  no  sacrifice, 
nor  ever  was,  that  could  procure  a  remission  of  sins  and  be  ap- 
plicable to  others,  except  the  one  sacrifice  of  Christ,  once  made 
on  the  cross.  The  mass,  therefore,  the  work  of  a  priest,  is  not  a 
sacrifice  that  can  procure  the  pardon  of  sin,  either  to  himself  or 
others."" 

In  like  manner  Luther  also  :  "  It  is  a  most  impious  abuse  by 
which  it  has  come  to  pass,  that  no  opinion  is  more  generally  re- 
ceived in  the  church,  than  that  the  mass  is  a  sacrifice."^  "  The 
sufferings  of  Christ  were  the  oblation  and  sacrifice  not  only  for 
original,  but  also  for  all  other  sins."  "  This  glory  of  Christ's  sac- 
rifice ought  not  to  be  transferred  to  the  work  of  the  priest,  for  it 
is  expressly  said,  by  one  oblation  the  saints  are  perfected.  It  is, 
moreover,  impious  to  transfer  to  the  work  of  the  priest,  the  reli- 
ance which  should  be  placed  on  the  oblation  and  intercessions  of 
Christ."^  "  The  offering  of  the  mass  for  the  dead  is  heretical  and 

'  Concil.  Trid.  sess.  xxii.  de  Sacrif.  Miseae.  Can.  1. 

'  Ibid.  sess.  xiv.  de  Poenit.  Can.  1. 

'  Ibid.  can.  14. 

*  Melancth.  op.  torn.  iv.  Act.  Ratisbon,  c.  7.  p.  746. 

°  Ibid.  torn.  ii.  de  usu  Sacram.  p.  190.  Also,  in  Psal.  116,  p.  833.  Sax.  Confess,  de 
Remiss,  ap.  Syll.  Confess,  p.  251. 

°  Lutheri  op.  torn.  ii.  de  Capt.  Bab.  fol.  264,  208,  209.  Also  bis  tract  de  Abrog 
Missae.  torn.  ii.  fol.  440-408. 

'  Confess.  August,  ap.  Syll.  Conf.  p.  194. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  263 

blashemous,  and  the  pretence  that  it  was  instituted  by  Christ  a 
palpable  lie."^ 

So  also  Calvin  ;  "  It  is  an  intolerable  blasphemy  of  Christ  and 
the  sacrifice  which  he  offered  in  his  death  for  us  on  the  cross,  to 
repeat  an  oblation  for  the  purpose  of  propitiating  God,  purchasing 
forgiveness,  and  obtaining  justification."^ 

The  Reformers  rejected  the  doctrine  likewise  of  satisfaction 
for  sins  by  penance.  "  But  these  satisfactions  have  obscured  the 
work  of  Christ,  as  the  learned  have  imagined  they  were  an  equiv- 
alent for  eternal  death,  while  the  unlearned  have  thought  a  re- 
mission of  sins  was  purchased  by  them,  as  is  usual  with  the  wor- 
ships that  are  not  commanded  by  God,  such  as  vain  repetitions 
of  prayer,  invocations  of  saints,  and  pilgrimages."^  Such  were 
the  teachings  of  the  whole  body  of  the  Reformers,*  and  thus  they 
verified  the  vision  by  measuring  the  altar,  the  symbol  of  Christ's 
sacrifice,  the  only  expiation  for  sin, 

IV.  They  learned  from  the  word  of  God,  and  proclaimed  the 
truth  symbolized  also  by  the  altar  of  incense,  and  by  the  entrance 
of  the  high  priest  into  the  inner  sanctuary,  that  Christ  is  the  only 
intercessor,  in  opposition  to  creatures,  to  whom  the  apostate 
church  ascribes  that  office. 

The  Catholics  held  that  the  saints  who  reign  with  Christ  are 
mediators  and  intercessors,  and  are  to  be  invoked  as  such.  Thus 
Bernard  represents  the  mother  of  Christ  as  our  advocate  with 
him,  "  Let  us  worship  Mary  with  all  our  hearts,  for  it  is  his  will 
who  wishes  us  to  be  his,  wholly  through  her.  You  fear  to  ap- 
proach the  Father.  He  has  given  you  Jesus  as  a  mediator.  But 
perhaps  you  fear  the  divine  majesty  in  him,  inasmuch  as  though 
he  has  become  man,  he  yet  remains  God.  Do  you  wish  an  ad- 
vocate with  him  ?  Repair  to  Mary,  and  I  hesitate  not  to  say,  she 
will  be  heard.  The  Son  will  hear  the  mother,  and  the  Father 
will  hear  the  Son.  This  is  my  chief  confidence.  This  is  the 
whole  ground  of  my  hope.  We  seek  grace,  and  we  seek  it  through 
Mary,  and  what  she  seeks  she  finds,  and  cannot  be  frustrated."* 
A  great  number  of  passages  occur  in  his  sermons  on  the  Virgin 
in  which  he  exhibits  her  as  a  mediator,  and  ascribes  to  her  all  the 
offices  of  Christ  as  an  advocate  and  intercessor. 

The  following  is  a  prayer  addressed  to  her  by  one  of  the  popes, 

'  Lutheri.  disp.  cont.  Lovan.  torn.  i.  f.  538.  '  Cal.  Inst.  lib.  iv.  c.  18,  s.  14, 

*  Confess.  August,  ap.  Syll.  Conf.  p.  200. 

*  Cal.  Inst.  lib.  iii.  c.  4.  s.  25.  Cheranicii  Exam.  Concil.  Trid.  pr.  iii.  p.  88,  pr.  ir. 
pp.  55-76. 

*  Bernard!  in  Nativ.  Mar.  torn.  i.  pp.  1014, 1015. 


264  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

who  promised  three  hundred  days  indulgence  to  whoever  daily 
repeated  it  to  her  honor.  "  O  most  clement  queen  and  sweet  vir- 
gin, holy  Mary  mother  of  God,  mother  of  orphans,  solace  of  the 
desolate,  way  of  the  erring,  safety  and  hope  of  those  who  trust  in 
thee,  fountain  of  life  and  favor,  fountain  of  health  and  grace,  foun- 
tain of  piety  and  indulgence,  fountain  of  consolation  and  joy, 
grant  me  true  and  becoming  tears  of  lamentation  for  my  sins,  and 
give  me  truly  to  know,  frequently  by  thy  aid  to  begin,  persever- 
ingly  to  pursue,  and  happily  to  finish  whatever  thy  Son  requires 
of  me.  O,  flower  of  virgins,  queen  of  heaven,  I  heartily  implore 
that  with  all  the  saints  and  chosen  of  God  thou  wouldst  hasten  to 
my  counsel,  and  aid  in  all  my  prayers,  trials,  and  necessities. 
0  star  of  the  sea,  port  of  safety,  holy  guide  of  the  shipwrecked, 
sweet  patron  of  the  miserable,  most  learned  advocate  of  the  guil- 
ty, the  only  hope  of  the  despairing,  august  saviour  of  sinners,  in 
my  last  day  irradiate  me  I  pray  thee  with  the  splendor  of  thy 
countenance  ;  be  thou  the  herald,  sacred  and  pious  nurse,  of  the 
day  and  hour  of  my  death.  Grant  thou  a  harbor  to  the  shipwreck- 
ed, interpose  for  the  culprit,  give  solace  to  the  wretched.  Be 
thou  my  hope  that  I  may  not  sink  in  despair  in  the  agony  of 
death,  as  there  can  then  be  no  other  hope  than  thee,  virgin  parent 
and  daughter  of  the  Father,  to  whom  do  thou  reconcile  me.  O, 
inexhaustible  fountain  of  compassion  and  favor,  compassion  and 
favor  itself,  repelling  no  one,  most  benignant  auditor,  graciously 
hear  and  receive  this  prayer,  and  grant  me  eternal  life.  Listen 
and  hear  me,  most  benignant  virgin,  mother  of  God  and  of  mer- 
cy."^ 

Very  similar  prayers  addressed  to  a  vast  crowd  of  saints,  may 
be  seen  in  the  Roman  Breviaries.  And  the  saints  were  regarded 
by  Catholics  universally  as  necessary  and  efficacious  intercessors 
with  God,^ 

But  the  ascription  thus  of  this  ofHce  of  Christ  to  creatures,  was 
regarded  by  the  Reformers  as  impious  in  the  utmost  degree,  and 
rejected  and  denounced.  Thus  in  the  Augsburg  Confession  : 
"  God  has  proposed  to  us  his  son  Jesus  Christ  as  the  mediator 
and  high  priest  interceding  for  us,  and  assured  us  that  it  is  for  his 
sake  alone  that  we  are  to  be  heard  and  accepted."^  The  Helve- 
tic Confession,  also  :  "  We  teach  that  God  alone  is  to  be  adored 
and  worshipped."  "  We  invoke  him  alone  in  all  the  necessities 
and  conditions  of  life,  and  through  the  intervention  of  the  only 
mediator  and  intercessor,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."    "  The  saints 

'  Chemuicii  Exam.  Concil.  Trid.  pr.  iii.  p.  156. 

'  Bellarmmi  de  Missa,  lib.  ii.  c.  8,  torn.  iii.  '  Syll.  Confess,  p.  188. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  265 

in  heaven  we  neither  adore,  invoke,  nor  acknowledge  as  media- 
tors or  intercessors  with  God."^  So  hkewise  the  Saxon  :  "  We 
condemn  it  as  a  heathenish  debasement  that  the  custom  is  main- 
tained of  addressing  those  who  have  departed  from  hfe,  and  in- 
voking aid  from  them.  Such  an  invocation  is  an  apostas)^  from 
God,  and  an  ascription  of  efficacious  assistance  and  intercession 
to  creatures."  "  To  ascribe  omnipotence  to  creatures  is  an  im- 
piety. The  invocation  of  a  creature  who  has  departed  from  this 
life  is  an  ascription  to  him  of  omnipotence,  for  it  impHes  that  he 
sees  the  hearts  of  all,  and  distinguishes  true  from  false  regrets. 
But  that  is  to  be  ascribed  only  to  the  eternal  Father,  to  his  Son 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  the  Holy  Spirit.  No  invocation, 
therefore,  should  be  addressed  to  the  dead."^  In  like  manner, 
Calvin,  Chenmitz,  and  the  whole  body  of  the  Reformers.^ 

They  thus  verified  the  prophecy  by  measuring  the  altar  of  incense 
and  the  inner  sanctuary,  the  symbols  of  Christ's  sole  mediation 
and  intercession  in  the  presence  of  God  in  the  heavenly  temple. 

V.  They  learned  from  the  Scriptures,  and  proclaimed  tiie  truth 
symbolized  by  the  cherubim  in  the  inner  sanctuary,  that  the  re- 
deemed at  death  pass  immediately  to  heaven,  and  are  accepted 
and  exalted  to  stations  in  the  presence  of  Christ,  in  opposition  to 
the  Catholic  doctrine  of  purgatory. 

The  papists  hold  that  "  purgatory  is  a  place  in  which  as  in  a 
prison,  souls  that  are  not  fully  cleansed  here,  are  purified  after 
this  life,  in  order  that  they  may  enter  heaven,  where  nothing  is 
admitted  that  is  defiled."*  The  council  of  Florence  decreed  that 
if  true  penitents  departed  from  life  in  the  love  of  God  before  they 
had  made  the  requisite  satisfaction  by  penance  for  their  sins  and 
omissions,  their  souls  were  purified  by  purgatorial  punishments 
after  death  ;  and  that  in  order  to  their  release  from  those  punish- 
ments, the  suffrages  of  believers  are  serviceable,  such  as  the 
sacrifice  of  the  mass,  prayers,  alms,  and  other  works  of  piety 
which  the  faithful  are  accustomed  to  perform  for  other  believers 
according  to  the  appointments  of  the  church  ;  that  the  souls  of 
those  who  after  the  reception  of  baptism  had  not  contracted  any 
spot  of  sin,  and  those  also  who  after  having  incurred  the  stain  of 
sin  are  purified  either  while  in  the  body,  or  after  their  release 
from  it,  are  immediately  received  into  heaven,  and  clearly  behold 
God  as  he  is  ;  one  more  perfectly,  however,  than  another,  ac- 

'  Syll.  Confess,  pp.  23,  24.  '  Ibid.  307,  308. 

'  Cal.  Inst.  lib.  iii.  c.  xx.  s.  20-27.  Cliemnicii  Exam.  Concil.  Trident,  pr.  iii.  pp.  140- 
227      Beliarmini  Disp.  torn.  ii.  de  Sanct.  Beat.  lib.  i.  c.  xv.  p.  716. 
*  Beliarmini  de  Piirgat.  lib.  i.  c.  1,  p.  561. 

34 


266  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

cording  to  the  diversity  of  their  merits ;  but  that  the  souls  of 
those  who  die,  either  in  actual,  mortal,  or  original  sin  only,  im- 
mediately descend  to  hell,  to  be  punished,  however,  indifferent 
degrees.' 

The  council  of  Trent  also  :  "  Since  the  Catholic  church,  in- 
structed by  the  Holy  Spirit  through  the  Scriptures,  and  the  an- 
cient tradition  of  the  fathers,  has  taught  by  the  holy  councils,  and 
recently  by  this  general  synod,  that  there  is  a  purgatory,  and  that 
souls  detained  there  are  aided  by  the  suffrages  of  the  faithful,  and 
especially  by  the  acceptable  sacrifice  of  the  altar ;  this  holy  synod 
commands  the  bishops  to  endeavor  diligently  that  the  sound 
doctrine  received  from  the  holy  fathers  and  sacred  councils  re- 
specting purgatory,  be  everywhere  taught,  received,  and  held  by 
believers."^ 

It  was  accordingly  everywhere  taught  and  received.  Masses 
and  prayers  were  offered  for  the  dead,  for  which  the  priest  ex- 
acted payment,  and  the  doctrine  thence  made  the  means  of  a  vast 
system  of  extortion. 

But  the  fiction  was  rejected  and  exposed  by  the  Reformers. 
Thus  Melancthon  :  "  The  souls  of  the  just  do  not  go  to  tortures, 
but  to  spiritual  joy  and  peace."^  "  Let  the  doctrine  be  held 
which  was  taught  by  prophets  and  apostles,  who  point  out  only 
two  ways  to  the  dead  ;  for  they  assert  that  they  who  are  convert- 
ed to  God  are  assuredly  heirs  of  eternal  salvation  ;  and  that  they 
who  are  not  converted  are  as  certainly  cast  into  eternal  punish- 
ment."* Luther  for  a  short  period  retained  his  belief  in  purga- 
tory, as  is  seen  in  his  Leipsic  disputation,  and  his  assertion  of 
the  articles  ascribed  to  him  in  the  bull  of  Leo  X.  f  where,  how- 
ever, he  admits  that  it  could  not  be  proved  from  the  Scriptures. 
He  soon,  however,  rejected  it.  "  I  fully  approve  of  your  denial 
of  purgatory,  and  condemnation  of  masses,  vigils,  and  whatever 
else  is  founded  on  that  imposture."^  It  was  rejected  also  by  all 
the  other  Reformers.  Thus  the  Helvetic  Confession :  "  We 
hold  that  believers  pass  immediately  from  death  to  Christ,  and 
have  no  need  of  the  suffrages  of  the  living,  prayers,  or  any  other 
offices  for  the  dead.  We  hold,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  unbe- 
lieving are  immediately  precipitated  into  hell,  from  which  no  exit 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xxxi.  p.  1031. 
'  Coiicil.  Trident,  sess.  x.xv.  de  Purgat. 

*  Melancth.  de  Eccles.  Op.  torn.  ii.  p.  143. 

*  Melancth.  Respons.  ad  Artie.  Bavar.  toin.  i.  f.  378. 
'  Lutheri  Op.  torn.  i.  f.  25(!,  torn.  ii.  f.  313. 

*  Lutlieri  Lib.  ad  VValdenses,  ap.  Bellarminum,  de  Purgat.  lib.  L  c.  2. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  26T 

is  procured  by  these  impious  offices.'"     So  also  Calvin,  Chem 
nitz,  and  others.^     They  thus  verified  the  vision  by  measuring 
the  cherubim  of  the  inner  sanctuary,  the  symbols  of  the  redeemed, 
who  at  death  pass  immediately  into  the  presence  of  Christ  in  the 
heavenly  temple. 

VI,  They  learned  from  the  sacred  word,  and  proclaimed  the 
truth  symbolized  by  the  priests  and  Levites,  that  they  are  legiti- 
mate offerers  of  the  worship  which  God  enjoins,  who  are  publicly 
set  apart  to  that  office  according  to  the  directions  given  in  the 
New  Testament,  and  who  fulfil  the  duties  of  the  ministry  as 
they  are  enjoined  by  the  Spirit  of  inspiration,  by  preaching  the 
gospel  in  its  purity,  and  offering  the  homage  to  God  through 
Christ  which  is  due  to  him,  in  opposition  to  the  arrogations  of 
the  apostate  church,  that  none  have  autiiority  to  exercise  the  min- 
istry unless  invested  by  the  pope,  or  an  order  of  bishops,  who 
are  unknown  to  the  New  Testament. 

It  is  tlie  doctrine  of  papists  that  bishops  alone  have  power  to 
ordain  to  sacred  offices,  and  that  ordinations  by  them  alone  con- 
fer authority  to  preach  the  gospel  and  administer  the  sacraments. 
"  This  holy  synod  declares  that  besides  other  ecclesiastical  grades, 
bishops  who  succeeded  to  the  apostles  belong  to  the  hierarchical 
order,  and  were  appointed  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  rule  the  church 
of  God  ;  that  they  are  superior  to  presbyters,  and  have  power 
to  bestow  the  sacrament  of  confirmation,  to  ordain  the  ministers 
of  the  church,  and  perform  many  other  things  for  which  the  in- 
ferior ranks  have  no  power.""* 

"  If  any  one  shall  say  that  bishops  are  not  superior  to  presby- 
ters, or  have  not  the  power  of  confirming  and  ordaining,  or  tiiat 
the  power  which  they  have  is  common  to  them  with  presbyters, 
or  tliat  ordinations  conferred  by  them  without  the  call  or  consent 
of  the  people  or  secular  authority  are  invalid,  or  that  they  who 
are  not  rightly  ordained,  nor  sent  by  ecclesiastical  and  canonical 
power,  but  enter  another  way,  are  legitimate  ministers  of  tiie 
word  and  sacraments,  let  him  be  accursed.""*  And  such  had  been 
the  pretences  of  the  hierarchies  from  the  period  of  their  nation- 
alization in  the  fourth  century. 

But  these  arrogant  claims  were  rejected  by  the  Reformers. 
Luther,  in  his  tract  respecting  the  power  ol  the  Roman  pontiff, 
not  only  denied  the  supremacy  of  the   pope,  his  superiority  to 

'  Syll.  Confess,  p.  95. 

'  Cal.  Inst.  lib.  iii.  c.  v.  s.  6.     Chemnicii  E.xam.  Concll.  Trident,  pr.  iii.  pp.  88-140. 

*  Concil.  Trident,  eess.  xxiii.  de  Sac.  Ord.  c.  iv. 

*  Concil.  Trident,  sess.  xxiii.  do  Sac.  Ord.  can.  vii. 


268  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

Other  bishops,  and  the  superiority  of  one  bishop  to  another,  but 
denounced  the  whole  fabric  of  episcopacy  as  the  mere  work  of 
men  ;  and  asserted  that  by  the  institution  of  Christ  bishops  and 
presbyters  are  equal.  "  It  is  the  common  opinion  of  the  whole 
church,  and  is  demonstrable  from  the  letters  of  Cyprian,  that 
every  priest  in  a  case  of  death  or  necessity,  is  a  bishop  and  a 
pope,  having  the  utmost  plenitude  of  power  in  respect  to  the  per- 
son making  confession.  The  consequence  follows  therefore  in- 
fallibly that  a  pope  is  not  superior  to  bishops  by  divine  right,  nor 
a  bishop  to  presbyters,  inasmuch  as  a  divine  right  is  immutable 
as  well  in  life  as  at  death."*  He  held  that  all  believers  are 
priests,  and  that  all  the  authority  which  they  who  are  ordained, 
and  exercise  the  ministry  possess  above  other  believers,  is  con- 
ferred by  the  church,  and  is  merely  of  ecclesiastical,  not  of  divine 
rigiit.  "  What  if  they  should  be  forced  to  admit  that  all  of  us 
who  have  been  baptized  are  priests,  as  we  truly  are  ;  and  although 
the  ministry  is  by  our  consent  committed  to  them  alone,  they 
should  at  the  same  time  know,  that  they  have  no  right  of  empire 
over  us,  except  so  far  as  we  voluntarily  allow  it.  For  thus  Pe- 
ter, '  Ye  are  a  chosen  race,  a  royal  priesthood,  a  sacerdotal  king- 
dom.' Wherefore  all  of  us  who  are  Christians  are  priests  ;  and 
those  whom  we  call  priests  are  mere  ministers  chosen  by  us, 
who  do  all  things  in  our  name.  And  there  is  no  other  priesthood 
than  a  ministry.  Thus  Paul  :  *  Let  a  man  esteem  us  as  minis- 
ters of  Christ  and  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God  ;'  from  which 
it  follows  that  if  one  who  is  called  to  this  office  by  the  church, 
does  not  preach  the  word,  he  is  not  a  priest ;  and  that  the  sacra- 
ment of  ordination  is  nothing  else  than  a  particular  mode  of 
electing  a  preacher."^ 

Melancthon  likewise,  while  willing  that  episcopacy  should  be 
continued,  yet  held  that  it  was  merely  of  human,  not  of  divine 
institution,  denied  the  necessity  of  the  confirmation  of  prelates 
by  the  pope,  and  asserted  the  legitimacy  of  ordination  by  presby- 
ters. "  The  ordination  of  ministers  of  the  gospel  in  our  church, 
is  legitimate  according  to  Paul's  direction  to  Titus  to  constitute 
presbyters  in  every  city."  "  I  know  the  adherents  of  the  pon- 
tiff declaim  fiercely  that  a  consecration  cannot  be  made  by  those 
who  are  not  ordained  by  bishops,  and  that  they  are  not  bishops 
who  are  not  confirmed  by  the  Roman  pontiff.  But  this  papisti- 
cal folly  is  refuted  by  the  example  of  the  oriental  churches."^ 

'  Lutheri  de  Potest.  Rom.  Pont.  tom.  i.  f.  319. 
'  Luttieri  de  Captiv.  Bab.  tom.  ii.  fF.  282,  283. 
*  Melancth.  Respons.  ad  Bavar.  Op.  tom.  i.  f.  366,  367.     Apol.  Confess,  f.  95 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  269 

They  held  to  the  necessity  of  ordination.  "We  hold  in  re- 
spect to  ecclesiastical  ordinations,  that  no  one  should  publicly 
teach  in  the  church,  or  administer  the  sacraments,  unless  regu- 
larly called."^  In  like  manner  the  churches  of  Switzerland  : 
"  One  and  the  same  power  or  office  is  given  to  all  ministers  in 
the  church.  It  is  certain  that  at  the  beginning  bishops  or  pres- 
byters governed  the  church  by  a  common  care.  No  one  exalted 
himself  over  another,  or  usurped  superiority  or  dominion  over 
fellow-bishops."^  So  also  the  Belgic  :  "  We  believe  that  the 
church  should  be  ruled  by  that  polity  which  God  has  himself  in- 
stituted in  his  word,  namely,  that  it  should  have  ministers  who 
should  preach  and  administer  the  sacraments  ;  that  its  senate 
should  consist  of  presbyters  and  deacons  ;  and  that  they  should 
be  called  to  their  office  by  a  legitimate  election  by  the  church."^ 
So  also  Calvin  :  "  In  denominating  those  who  rule  the  church, 
bishops,  presbyters,  pastors,  and  ministers  without  discrimina- 
tion, I  have  followed  the  usage  of  the  Scriptures,  for  they  give 
the  title  of  bishops  to  whoever  exercised  the  ministry  of  the 
word."*  And  such  were  the  views  universally  of  the  Reformers 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  Their  rejection  alike  of  the  claims  of 
the  pope  to  supremacy  over  all  churches,  and  of  bishops  to  su- 
periority to  presbyters,  and  sole  right  to  induct  into  the  sacred 
office,  was  as  universal  and  conspicuous,  as  their  rejection  of  the 
mass,  indulgences,  purgatory,  or  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy. 
They  held  that  they  were  true  and  legitim'ate  ministers,  who, 
having  been  chosen  by  the  churches,  and  inducted  into  the  office 
by  presbyters,  preached  the  gospel  in  its  purity.  They  who  re- 
tained episcopacy,  retained  it  as  a  human  institution,  not  as  of 
divine  appointment.^ 

They  thus  fulfilled  the  vision  by  measuring  the  priests  and  Le- 
vites  of  the  outer  sanctuary,  the  symbols  of  the  legitimate  teach- 
ers and  offerers  of  acceptable  worship  in  the  church  under  the 
gospel. 

VII.  They  learned  from  the  Scriptures  and  taught  the  truths 
symbolized  by  the  outer  sanctuary,  that  any  place  is  appropriate 
for  the  offering  of  acceptable  homage,  from  which  the  offerers  of 

'  Confess.  August,  ap  Syll.  Conf.  p.  127.  ^  Syll.  Confess,  p.  71. 

'  Syll.  Confess,  xxx.  xxxi.  p.  347. 

*  Cal.  Inst.  lib.  iv.  c.  3,  s.  8-16. 

'  See  Stillingfleet's  Irenicum,  chap,  viii.,  in  which  numerous  proofs  of  this  fact 
are  alleged  from  the  Reformers  and  later  divines  of  England  and  the  continent. 
It  was  not  till  seventy  years  from  the  commencement  of  the  Reformation  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  episcopacy  began  to  be  advanced  by  Protestants, 
p.  394.  Neal's  Hist,  of  the  Puritans,  vol.  i.  pp.  480,  481. 


270  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

worship  and  the  worshippers  look  up  to  the  heavenly  sanctuary, 
and  address  their  adoration  and  prayers  to  God  through  Christ, 
in  opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  the  apostate  church,  tliat  the  only 
legitimate  places  of  worship  are  edifices  that  arc  consecrated  by 
superstitious  rites,  made  the  depositories  of  relics,  and  furnished 
with  altars,  shrines  of  martyrs,  and  the  images  of  saints. 

The  Catholic  canons  require  that  even  the  grounds  on  which 
churches  are  erected  should  be  devoted  to  God,  in  order  that  the 
edifices  may  be  appropriated  to  his  service.  "That  no  church 
should  be  consecrated,  nor  sacrifice  offered  of  the  mass,  except 
in  places  dedicated  to  God,  unless  in  cases  of  the  utmost  neces- 
sity, is  known  to  all  who  are  aware  of  the  commands  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testament."^  It  was  claimed  that  no  edifices  for  wor- 
ship should  be  erected  without  permission  from  the  pope.  "We 
are  informed  that  some  have  ventured  to  erect  basilicas  and  ora- 
tories without  permission  of  the  apostolic  see."^  It  was  held 
that  no  church  newly  erected  should  be  dedicated  without  the 
authority  of  the  supreme  pontiflf,^  and  no  one  could  build  a  church 
until  the  bishop  of  the  diocese  had  marked  out  and  consecrated 
the  site  by  superstitious  rites.  "  Let  no  one  erect  a  church  till 
the  bishop  of  the  city  come  and  set  up  a  cross  on  the  site,  and 
mark  out  the  court ;  nor  until  he  who  desires  to  erect  it  have 
shown  that  he  has  appropriated  sufficient  means  for  the  lights, 
care,  and  wages  of  the  keepers  of  such  a  building.  And  after 
he  has  consecrated  it,  let  him  sprinkle  the  court  with  holy 
water."*  "  No  presbyter  may  erect  another  altar  in  a  conse- 
crated church  unless  it  be  dedicated  or  permitted  by  the  bishop 
of  the  place,  that  there  may  be  a  discrimination  between  what  is 
sacred  and  what  is  not."^ 

Churches  were  not  to  be  consecrated  without  a  deposite  in 
them  of  relics.  "  We  decree  that  a  deposite  of  the  relics  of  holy 
martyrs  be  made  with  the  customary  prayers  in  all  churches  that 
have  been  consecrated  without  them  ;  and  should  a  bishop  here- 
after consecrate  a  church  without  holy  relics,  let  him  be  deposed 
as  a  transgressor  of  the  ecclesiastical  traditions."® 

Images  and  pictures  were  required  to  be  placed  in  all  churches. 
"  The  image  of  Christ,  of  the  virgin  mother  of  God,  and  of  other 
saints,  are  to  be  placed  and  preserved  in  the  temples  especially, 
and  honored  with  due  veneration."' 

'  Gratiani  Decret.  de  Consecrat.  Dist.  i.  c.  i.  '  Ibid.  Dist.  i.  c.  iv. 

'  Ibid.  Dist.  i.  c.  v.  *  Ibid.  Dist.  i.  c.  ix.  '  Ibid.  Dist.  i.  c.  xxv. 

'  Concil.  Nicffiiii,  ii.  can.  vii. ;  Labbei  torn.  xiii.  p.  751.  Van  Espen,  pr.  ii.  tit.  xvi. 
c.  iii.  de  Consecrat.  Eccl.  ^  Concil.  Trident,  sess.  xxv.  de  Sac.  Iraag. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  271 

No  church  could  be  consecrated  without  the  sacrifice  of  the 
mass.  "  All  basilicas  should  be  consecrated  with  the  mass."^ 
The  mass  was  not  to  be  offered  in  any  except  a  consecrated 
place.  "  The  solemnities  of  the  mass  are  to  be  celebrated,  not 
anywhere,  but  only  in  places  consecrated  by  the  bishop,  or 
where  he  permits."^  So  also  the  capitulary  of  Charlemagne  in 
the  year  801.  "  Let  no  priest  venture  to  celebrate  mass  in  any 
other  house  or  place  than  dedicated  churches."^ 

But  all  these  superstitions  and  idolatries  were  rejected  by  the 
Reformers.  Images,  pictures,  and  relics,  were  removed  from 
the  churches.  Edifices  were  erected  for  pubhc  worsliip  only 
because  of  their  convenience,  not  that  they  are  requisite  to  an 
acceptable  homage  ;  and  the  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures  tauglit 
and  held  that  God  is  ever  present  with  his  people  when  they 
assemble  for  his  worship,  whether  in  temples,  in  private  dwell- 
ings, or  the  open  fields  ;  and  hears  the  accents  of  adoration  and 
love  from  whatever  station  they  are  breathed,  cottage  or  palace, 
the  dungeon  where  his  martyrs  are  chained,  the  deep  glens  and 
caverns  of  tiie  mountains  to  which  his  witnesses  have  tied  from 
their  persecutors,  or  the  lowering  structures  which  have  been 
set  apart  for  his  homage,  and  in  which  his  worshippers  are  as- 
sembled. "  The  Lutherans  and  Calvinists  allow  temples,  but 
only  for  public  teaching  and  the  administration  of  the  sacraments. 
They  disapprove  of  their  erection  as  mere  oratories  and  in  honor 
of  saints,  and  of  their  being  consecrated  with  peculiar  rites,  and 
decorated  with  expensive  ornaments."* 

"  As  behevers  are  required  to  offer  public  prayer,  temples  are 
requisite  for  that  purpose,  nor  is  that,  as  some  who  would  avoid 
worshipping  with  God's  people  pretend,  inconsistent  with  the 
direction  to  enter  into  our  closets.  For  in  promising  that  he  will 
do  whatever  two  or  three  who  are  gathered  together  in  his  name 
shall  ask,  God  shows  that  he  is  not  averse  from  open  and  united 
prayer ;  only  let  ostentation  and  endeavors  after  vain-glory  be 
avoided,  and  the  affection  be  sincere.  But  if  that  be  the  legiti- 
mate use  of  temples,  as  it  certainly  is,  care  is  again  to  be  taken 
that  we  do  not  regard  them  as  they  were  held  in  some  ages,  as 
tlie  pecuhar  habitation  of  God,  in  which  he  listens  to  us  most 
readily,  or  ascribe  to  them  a  secret  and  incomprehensible  sanc- 
tity that  renders  prayer  more  holy."^ 

'  Gratiani  Decret.  de  Consecrat.  Dist.  i.  c.  iii.  ^  Ibid.  Dist.  i.  c.  xii.  c.  xv. 

'  Capit.  Reg.  Franc,  auno  801,  can.  ix.  —  anno  769,  can.  xiv.  Tom.  i.  pp. 
359,  192. 

*  Beilarmini  de  Cultu  Sanct  lib.  iii.  c.  1.  *  Cal.  lust  lib.  iii.  c.  20,  s.  30. 


272  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

They  thus  measured  the  outer  sanctuary,  as  the  symbol  of  the 
places  in  which  acceptable  worship  is  offered  by  the  church 
under  the  gospel. 

VIII.  And  finally,  they  complied  with  the  direction  to  reject 
the  court  which  was  without,  and  measure  it  not,  by  representing 
the  votaries  of  the  apostate  hierarciiy  as  members  of  a  false,  not 
of  a  true  church,  and  yet  not  assuming  but  that  there  were  indi- 
viduals in  that  communion  who  were  true  worshippers  of  God. 

Thus  Calvin :  "  It  will  clearly  appear  what  place  we  are  to 
assign  to  those  churches  which  are  under  the  tyranny  of  the  Ro- 
man idol,  if  we  compare  them  with  the  ancient  Israelitish  church, 
as  it  is  described  by  the  prophets.  A  true  church  subsisted 
among  the  Jews  as  long  as  they  adhered  to  the  laws  of  the  cove- 
nant;  that  is,  as  they  retained  through  the  favor  of  God  those 
things  by  which  a  church  consists.  They  had  the  true  doctrine, 
in  the  law  and  its  ministry  by  priests  and  prophets.  They  were 
initiated  by  circumcision,  and  disciplined  by  other  sacraments  to 
the  confirmation  of  faith ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  the 
benedictions  which  God  pronounces  on  the  church  were  appli- 
cable to  their  society.  Bui  after  having  turned  from  the  law  of 
the  Lord,  and  degenerated  to  superstition  and  idolatry,  they  lost 
in  a  degree  that  prerogative.  For  who  on  the  one  hand  will  ven- 
ture to  deny  the  title  of  the  church  to  those  among  whom  God 
establishes  the  preaching  of  his  word  and  the  observation  of  the 
sacraments  ;  or  who  on  the  other  will  dare  to  denominate  that 
assembly,  without  any  limitation,  a  church,  in  which  the  word  of 
God  is  openly  and  with  impunity  trodden  under  foot,  and  its 
ministry,  the  chief  nerve  and  soul  as  it  were  of  the  church,  ex- 
tinguished ?  As  then  some  peculiar  prerogatives  of  the  church 
remained  among  the  Jews,  so  we  would  not  deny  to  the  papal 
such  traces  of  the  church  as  God  pleases  should  survive  among 
them.  He  having  once  established  his  covenant  with  the  Jews, 
it  continued  to  subsist  by  its  own  strength,  not  by  their  preserv- 
ing it.  His  faithfulness  was  not  annihilated  by  their  perfidy,  nor 
circumcision  so  polluted  by  their  impious  hands,  but  that  it  was 
still  a  sign  and  seal  of  the  covenant ;  whence  he  denominated 
the  children  that  were  born  to  them  his,  although  they  were  not 
such  except  of  special  grace.  So  when  he  had  established  his 
covenant  in  Gaul,  Italy,  Germany,  Spain,  England,  in  order  that 
it  might  continue  inviolable  while  those  provinces  were  oppressed 
by  the  tyranny  of  antichrist,  he  first  preserved  baptism  there, 
the  witness  of  the  covenant,  which  being  consecrated  by  his 
own  lips,  retained  its  force  notwithstanding  man's  impiety  :  and 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  273 

next,  he  also  preserved  there  a  remnant  that  the  church  might  not 
absolutely  expire."  "  While  then  we  are  not  willing  to  concede 
the  title  of  a  church  to  the  papists  without  a  limitation,  we  yet 
do  not  deny  that  there  are  churches  among  them,  but  contend 
only  in  respect  to  the  true  and  legitimate  constitution  of  a  church, 
which  is  required  in  order  to  a  communion  of  sacraments,  and  in 
a  still  higher  degree  of  doctrine.  The  prophets  predicted  that 
antichrist  was  to  seat  himself  in  the  temple  of  God.  We  regard 
the  Roman  pontiff  as  the  head  of  that  abominable  kingdom. 
That  his  seat  was  to  be  placed  in  the  temple  of  God,  implies 
that  his  kingdom  was  to  be  such  as  still  to  retain  the  name  of 
Christ  and  the  church ;  and  hence  it  appears  we  are  not  to  deny 
that  churches  still  remain  under  his  tyranny,  although  he  has 
profaned  them  with  a  sacrilegious  impiety,  afflicted  them  with  a 
savage  domination,  and  corrupted  and  almost  exterminated  them 
by  deadly  doctrines  and  poisonous  potions  ;  and  Christ  lies  half 
sepulchred  in  them,  the  gospel  is  buried,  piety  driven  away,  and 
the  worship  of  God  almost  abolished."^  And  similar  views  were 
entertained  by  Luther,  Melancthon,  and  the  Reformers  gener- 
ally.^ They  thus  cast  out  the  outer  court  as  occupied  generally 
by  apostates,  and  yet  did  not  attempt  to  determine  but  that  some 
of  those  who  were  in  it,  were  true  worshippers. 

The  prophecy  had  thus  in  all  these  relations  the  most  conspic- 
uous fulfilment.  The  great  and  peculiar  truths  of  the  Scrip- 
tures which  were  proclaimed  by  the  Reformers,  are  precisely 
those  symbolized  by  the  temple,  the  altar,  and  the  offerers  of 
worship ;  while  the  great  errors  and  idolatries  of  the  apostate 
church  which  they  rejected,  are  precisely  the  opposite  of  those 
truths  which  the  false  prophet  had  substituted  in  their  place. 

The  prediction  respecting  the  treading  of  the  holy  city  by  the 
Gentiles  during  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  days,  and  the  prophecy 
of  the  witnesses  in  sackcloth,  have  also  had  a  conspicuous  fulfil- 
ment. 

That  period  commenced  at  the  close  of  the  sixth  or  beginning 
of  the  seventh  century,  on  the  conversion  of  the  Gothic  princes 
and  nations  to  the  faith  of  the  Catholic  church.  The  Greek  and 
Latin  communions  had  in  that  age  openly  apostatized  from  God, 
ascribing  his  rights  as  lawgiver  to  men,  and  paying  the  worship 
due  only  to  him,  to  creatures,  to  relics,  to  images,  and  to  imagi- 
nary existences  ;  and  they  have  continued  and  advanced  in  that 

'  Cal.  Inst.  lib.  iv.  c.  ii.  s.  7,  11,  12. 

'  Confess.  August,  art.  viii.  op.  Melancth.  torn.  i.  f.  29.  Apol.  Confess,  de  Eccl. 
torn.  i.  f.  79,  80. 

35 


274  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

apostasy  through  all  the  ages  that  have  followed.  On  tlie  other 
hand,  at  every  period  of  that  long  night  of  idolatry  and  persecu- 
tion, God  raised  up  a  few  witnesses  both  teachers  and  recipients 
of  their  doctrine,  who  proclaimed  and  vindicated  the  truth  in  op- 
position to  those  errors,  and  denounced  the  judgments  which 
God  has  threatened  to  inflict  on  the  idolatrous  church  and  perse- 
cuting civil  rulers.  Such  conspicuously  were  many  of  the  Pau- 
licians,  the  Albigenses,  the  Waldenses,  the  Wicklifites,  the 
Lollards,  the  Bohemians ;  and  such  have  been  vast  numbers  of 
Protestants  of  the  last  three  hundred  years. 

The  symbolization  of  the  olive  trees  and  the  lamps  was  veri- 
fied in  them.  They  were  dissentients  from  the  nationahzed 
Greek  and  Latin  churches,  held  separate  assemblies,  had  teach- 
ers of  their  own  appointment,  and  offered  a  peculiar  worship. 
They  fulfilled  their  office  also  in  sackcloth,  under  a  profound 
sense  of  the  rights  of  God,  in  humiliation  for  their  sins,  and  in 
grief  at  the  dishonor  of  his  name  by  apostates.  They  were  perse- 
cuted in  every  age,  from  the  seventh  to  the  nineteenth  century. 
And  their  great  and  peculiar  teachings  were  in  vindication  of  the 
rights  of  God,  in  assertion  of  the  work  of  Christ  as  sole  Re- 
deemer and  intercessor,  and  in  denunciation  of  the  idolatrous 
homage  of  relics,  saints,  and  images,  and  the  false  doctrines  of  the 
apostate  church  respecting  the  priesthood,  the  sacraments,  celi- 
bacy, fasting,  and  purgatory. 

That  there  were  persons  at  the  period  of  the  conversion  of  the 
ten  kingdoms,  who  testified  against  the  worship  of  images  as 
idolatrous,  is  apparent  from  the  letters  of  Gregory  the  Great,  in 
599  and  601 .  On  hearing  that  Sercnus,  the  bishop  of  Marseilles, 
had  broken  those  in  his  church,  because  he  saw  they  were  made 
objects  of  adoration,  he  wrote  to  him  disapproving  of  their  de- 
struction, and  recommending  tiiat  they  should  be  used  as  pictures 
were  in  the  churches,  for  the  instruction  of  such  as  were  unable 
to  read  the  histories  of  the  saints.  But  the  counsel  was  deemed 
so  unevangelical  by  Serenus,  that  he  doubted  the  genuineness 
of  the  letter,  and  wrote  to  Gregory  to  learn  if  he  were  its  author,^ 

That  there  were  many,  both  in  the  eastern  and  western  em- 
pire in  the  eighth  century,  who  rejected  the  worship  of  images, 
is  manifest  from  the  council  of  Constantinople  in  754,  in  which 
it  was  denounced  as  idolatrous  ;'^  and  from  the  protestation  of 
Charlemagne  and  the  prelates  of  France  against  tiie  legalization 

'  Gregorii  M.  Epist.  105,  lib.  ix.  Ind.  ii. ;  Ep.  13,  lib.  xi.  Ind.  iv. 
'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xiii.  p.  323. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  275 

of  their  worship  by  tlie  second  council  of  Nicaea  in  787.^  Nei- 
ther of  those  bodies,  however,  can  be  considered  as  among  the 
witnesses  denoted  by  the  text,  as  notwithstanding  their  disappro- 
bation of  images,  they  were  addicted  to  the  veneration  of  relics, 
and  the  invocation  of  saints,  and  arrogated  to  themselves  the  right 
of  legislation  over  the  church,  and  justified  it  in  their  predeces- 
sors. They  render  it  credible  nevertheless  that  there  were  per- 
sons who  rejected  the  whole  system  of  false  doctrines  and  idola- 
trous rites  of  the  age,  the  error  and  impiety  of  which  were  as 
apparent  as  of  the  adoration  of  images.  And  of  the  existence 
of  such  from  the  seventh  century  through  all  the  ages  that  fol- 
lowed, there  are  adequate  proofs. 

There  arose  in  Armenia  about  the  middle  of  the  seventh  cen- 
tury, a  body  of  Christians  denominated  Paulicians,  who,  with- 
drawing from  the  nationalized  church,  rejected  the  usurpations, 
false  doctrines,  and  idolatries  of  the  hierarchies,  and  continued 
to  utter  a  testimony  to  the  truth  for  two  centuries  in  the  east,  and 
subsequently  in  Bulgaria,  Illyria,  Bohemia,  Italy,  and  France,  to 
the  dawn  of  the  Reformation. 

I.  They  regarded  God  as  the  sole  lawgiver  of  the  church, 
held  the  New  Testament  in  the  highest  estimation,  and  made  it 
the  rule  of  their  faith,  taught  that  it  was  to  be  studied  by  the 
people  as  well  as  by  the  ministers  of  the  church,  and  accused 
the  priests  of  the  Greek  communion  of  the  grossest  violation  of 
the  divine  will,  in  withholding  it  from  the  laity. 

"  They  receive  the  words  of  the  Lord,  of  the  apostles  also, 
and  the  other  writings,  I  mean  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  the 
Catholic  epistles,  except  those  ascribed  to  Peter ;  for  they  do  not 
receive  them  literally."  "  Even  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and 
the  Catholic  epistles  are  reckoned  with  the  gospels  by  a  part  of 
them  only,  not  by  all."^ 

"  Therefore  this  new  sprout  from  those  old  seeds,  neither  ap- 
proves nor  regards  the  writings  of  the  Manichean  teachers,  but 
deceitfully  pretends  to  hold  to  those  only  in  which  the  words  of 
the  Lord  are  written,  and  the  epistles  of  the  great  apostle  Paul, 
and  by  some  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  the  Catholic  epistles, 
except  those  of  Peter,  and  they  affect  to  appropriate  them  to 
themselves,  that  they  may  easily  deceive  the  unlearned."^ 

"  The  Paulician  woman,  when  she  first  conversed  with  Ser- 
gius,  asked  him.  Why  do  you  not  read  the  gospels  1  And  he,  the 

'  Dupin,  N.  Biblioth.  in  Charlemagne,  vol.  vi.  pp.  134-138. 

*  Photii  contra  Manich.  lib.  i.  c.  8,  ap.  J.  C.  Wolfii  Anecdot.  GrtEC.  pp.  27,  28. 

'  Photii  contra  Manich.  lib.  i.  pp.  56,  57. 


276  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

apostasy  not  having  yet  pervaded  his  heart,  repHed,  '  A  laic  is 
not  allowed  freely  to  read  the  sacred  oracles,  for  that  work  is  as- 
signed to  the  priests.'  The  infuriate  woman  retorted — '  It  is  ir- 
rational to  cherish  such  a  scrupulousness  in  regard  to  them ;  for 
there  is  no  respect  of  persons  with  God.  He  wishes  all  to  come 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  and  be  saved.  But  that  you  are 
to  regard  the  divine  word  with  such  awe,  is  not  from  a  care  for 
its  honor.  Instead,  it  is  the  artifice  of  your  priests,  who,  desiring 
to  make  a  traffic  of  it,  wish  to  keep  you  ignorant  of  its  myste- 
ries. It  is  for  that  reason  that  they  restrain  you  from  reading  it, 
and  only  allow  you  to  become  hearers  when  they  have  separated 
that  which  they  are  to  read  from  its  connection  and  torn  it  to 
pieces.'  "^ 

II.  They  rejected  the  Greek  hierarchy  of  bishops,  and  their 
usurped  right  of  legislation  over  the  church.  They  had  but  two 
orders  of  ministers,  and  never  attempted  to  enforce  the  reception 
of  their  doctrines  by  mere  human  authority.  "  They  do  not  re- 
ceive the  presbyters  of  the  Catholic  church,  nor  the  other  priests, 
because  they  say  the  priests  and  presbyters  of  the  people  consti- 
tuted the  council  against  Christ.  On  the  contrary,  they  denom- 
inate those  who  hold  the  place  of  priests  among  them,  not  priests, 
but  companions  in  travel,  and  notaries.  Those  orders,  however, 
exhibit  nothing  different  from  the  multitude  in  dress,  diet,  or  any 
thing  else  that  is  a  mark  of  dignity."^  They  held  no  councils  ; 
their  clergy  enacted  no  decrees  or  canons  ;  they  appealed  to  no 
authority  but  the  word  of  God  for  their  doctrines  ;  and  are  rep- 
resented as  having  in  all  instances,  when  arraigned  by  their  per- 
secutors, offered  that  as  the  reason  of  their  faith. 

III.  They  rejected  the  worship  of  the  cross.  "  Then  followed 
another  question.  Why  do  you  not  worship  and  embrace  the  cross 
of  Christ  ?  The  Paulician  again  subjected  him  who  does  not 
worship  the  living  cross  to  a  curse,  by  the  cross,  meaning  Christ 
himself,  who  formed,  he  said,  the  figure  of  the  cross  by  the  ex- 
tension of  his  arms,"^  "  The  gospels  which  we  have,  they  do 
not  hesitate  to  venerate,  not  indeed  where  the  figure  of  the  cross 
is  delineated,  but  on  the  other  parts  of  the  volume  where  no  im- 
age of  the  cross  is  drawn,  and  they  reverence  the  book,  they  say, 
because  it  contains  the  words  of  the  Lord."**  "  But  the  literal 
cross,  which  they  say  was  wood,  the  implement  of  injustice,  and 
the  subject  of  a  curse,  they  hold  ought  not  to  be  worshipped  and 
kissed."^ 

»  Photii  contra  Manich.  lib.  i.  pp.  100-102.  »  Ibid.  lib.  i.  pp.  31,  32. 

*  Ibid.  lib.  i.  p.  79.        *  Ibid.  Ub.  i.  pp.  32,  33.  »  Ibid.  lib.  i.  p.  23. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  277 

IV.  They  rejected  in  like  manner  the  worship  of  saints.  "  In 
addition  to  these  questions  he  asked,  Why  do  you  not  honor  the 
holy  mother  of  God  with  due  homage  and  worship  ?  And  he, 
continuing  his  inanner,  denounced  an  anathema  against  those 
who  do  not  venerate  the  holy  mother  of  God,  adding  that  he  em- 
braced and  venerated  that  into  which  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  en- 
tered, and  from  which  he  came,  the  New  Jerusalem,  the  mother 
of  us  all."^  "And  blaspheming  our  most  holy  queen  the  mother 
of  God,  these  men  worthy  not  once,  but  thrice  of  destruction,  do 
not  fear  to  say  what  is  neither  fit  to  be  written,  nor  heard :  we 
believe  in  the  most  holy  mother  of  God  into  which  the  Lord  en- 
tered, meaning  the  New  Jerusalem,  and  saying  into  that  Christ 
our  forerunner  has  entered  for  us."^ 

V.  They  rejected  the  doctrine  of  the  age  respecting  the  eu- 
charist,  which  represented  it  as  the  real  body  and  blood  of  Christ, 
ascribed  to  it  a  sanctifying  power,  and  taught  that  its  reception 
was  necessary  at  death  in  order  to  absolution.  "  A  fourth  ques- 
tion was  proposed  to  him  :  '  Why  do  you  insult  and  contemn  the 
spotless  and  fearful  body  and  blood  of  Christ  our  God,  and  not 
endure  to  partake  of  them  V  And  the  thrice  wicked  again  struck 
with  an  anathema  him  who  treats  with  dishonor  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,  and  lives  without  partaking  them — understanding 
by  the  body  and  blood,  not  what  our  Lord  has  taught  us  to  call 
the  body  and  blood,  but  instead  the  Lord's  words" — that  is  un- 
doubtedly, not  the  bread  and  wine,  but  that  which  the  Lord  em- 
ployed them  to  represent.^ 

Photius,  indeed,  asserts  that  they  did  not  partake  the  bread 
and  wine,  but  it  is  obviously  a  misrepresentation,  as  he  alleges 
in  the  same  passage  that  they  affirmed  they  received  the  body 
and  blood,  ascribing  a  wonderful  or  spiritual  meaning  to  Christ's 
words,  Take  ye,  eat ;  which  is  the  manner  in  which  they  would 
have  expressed  themselves,  had  tliey  contemplated  the  elements 
simply  as  the  representatives  of  his  body  and  blood,  and  regarded 
themselves  as  receiving  him  in  those  symbols  only  in  a  spii'itual 
sense,  not  literally,  as  was  held  by  the  Greeks.  He  accordingly 
affirms,  on  a  subsequent  page,  that  many  of  them  partook  of  the 
eucharist  with  the  Greeks,  though  he  asserts  it  was  merely  to 
deceive  the  simple.^ 

He  accuses  them  also  of  rejecting  baptism,  and  yet  admits  that 
by  the  rejection  which  he  ascribes  to  them,  he  means  only  that 
they  assigned  to  the  rite  an  office  or  import  different  from  that 

'  Photii  contra  Mauich.  lib.  i.  pp.  79,  80.        '  Ibid.  lib.  i.  pp.  20,  21. 
»  Ibid.  lib.  i.  pp.  80,  81.  *  Ibid.  lib.  i.  p.  30. 


278  '  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

ascribed  to  it  by  the  Greek  church,  which  held  it  to  be  accom- 
panied by  the  renovating  influences  of  the  Spirit,  and  to  secure 
the  forgiveness  of  all  antecedent  sins.  He  allows  that  they  bap- 
tized, but  denied  that  the  rite  or  the  sign  of  the  cross  was  effica- 
cious to  the  purification  of  the  soul.^ 

To  this  view  of  their  doctrines  and  character,  it  is  objected 
that  Photius  also  represents  them  as  holding  the  Manichean 
dogma  of  two  principles.  But  that  is  most  obviously  a  false 
accusation,  as  he  as  well  as  his  cotemporary  Petrus  Siculus,  who 
also  assailed  them  with  that  charge,  admits  that  they  never  open- 
ly taught  or  avowed  Manicheism,  that  they  pronounced  the  im- 
putation of  that  impious  system  to  them  wholly  unjust,  that  they 
specifically  disowned  and  rejected  all  the  works  and  all  the  doc- 
trines of  Manes  ;  and  that  they  received  the  New  Testament  as 
the  word  of  God,  and  made  it  the  sole  rule  of  their  faith; — ac- 
knowledgments wholly  inconsistent  with  that  charge.  The 
,  Manicheans  never  professed  to  found  their  dogmas  on  the  New 
Testament.  Such  a  pretence  had  been  preposterous  in  the  ex- 
treme, as  they  are  directly  opposed  to  all  the  great  doctrines  of 
the  gospel.  Instead,  they  openly  rejected  the  Scriptures  both 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  and  substituted  forged  gospels 
and  other  supposititious  writings  in  their  place,  as  the  oracles  of 
their  system.  As  that  imputation  by  his  own  representation  can- 
not have  been  founded  on  any  express  avowal  by  them  of  Mani- 
cheism, it  must  either  have  been  built  like  the  false  charge  that 
they  rejected  the  eucharist  and  baptism,  on  a  mere  perversion  of 
the  language  in  which  they  expressed  some  truth,  or  been  the 
work  of  sheer  and  malignant  misrepresentation.  That  a  specific 
and  formal  profession  of  a  truth,  and  in  the  language  of  the 
Scriptures  and  of  the  church,  was  no  obstacle  to  his  accusing 
them  of  rejecting  it,  is  apparent  from  his  charging  them  with  a 
rejection  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  by  the  as- 
cription of  an  impious  meaning  to  the  terms,  although  he  allows 
that  they  acknowledged  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  anathematized  those  who  denied  them.^  On  the  principle  on 
which  he  proceeds  in  that  imputation,  it  would  be  impossible  for 
a  witness  for  God  ever  to  vindicate  himself  from  the  most  gra- 
tuitous and  atrocious  calumny.  Of  what  significance  is  an  ingen- 
uous and  faithful  profession  of  the  truth, — of  what  avail  are  inno- 
cence, faith,  and  fidelity  to  God,  if  the  accuser  is  at  liberty,  without 
a  particle  of  evidence,  and  against  the  most  resistless  demonsira- 

>  Photii  contra  Manich.  lib.  i.  pp.  29,  30.       ^  Ibid.  lib.  i.  pp.  18,  19. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  279 

tion,  to  assume  that  the  accused  use  the  language  of  truth  in  a 
false  and  impious  sense  ?  When  the  traducers  and  persecutors 
of  the  children  of  God  find  themselves  obliged  to  resort  to  such 
pretences  to  justify  themselves,  it  indicates  that  they  are  without 
any  legitimate  grounds  of  accusation,  and  bespeaks  a  majestic 
innocence  and  dignity  in  the  objects  of  their  malice. 

But  by  his  own  admission  the  Paulicians  gave  the  most  deci- 
sive and  stupendous  proofs  of  their  sincerity  in  the  profession  of 
the  gospel,  and  rejection  of  the  impious  system  ascribed  to  them. 
He  acknowledges  that  the  effort  was  made  to  extort  from  them 
an  avowal  of  Manicheism,  by  the  threat  and  the  infliction  of  con- 
fiscation, imprisonment,  exile,  torture,  and  death,  and  yet,  with 
scarce  an  exception,  without  success.  They  inflexibly  main- 
tained their  profession  of  the  truth,  when  stretched  upon  the  gib- 
bet, when  chained  to  the  stake,  when  precipitated  into  the  waves, 
when  subjected  to  every  species  of  outrage  and  promiscuously 
slaughtered  by  a  ferocious  soldiery,  and  when  driven  from  their 
burning  villages  and  cities  to  the  forests  and  mountains  to  perish 
of  hunger  and  cold.  That  the  experiment  was  made  on  a  vast 
scale  he  admits,  and  is  apparent  from  the  long  period  through 
which  they  were  persecuted,  and  the  multitudes  that  were  put 
to  death. ^  What  more  decisive  and  stupendous  proofs  could  they 
possibly  have  given  of  their  sincerity  ?  The  very  endeavor  to 
force  them  by  those  terrible  inflictions  to  acknowledge  themselves 
Manicheans,  demonstrates  that  no  public  evidences  existed  that 
they  v/ere  such.  It  is  from  the  suspected  and  accused  only,  not 
the  openly  and  indisputably  guilty,  that  men  attempt  to  extort 
confessions  by  the  scourge  and  the  rack. 

And  finally,  Photius  refutes  his  pretence  that  they  concealed 
their  Manicheism,  in  order  to  escape  the  punishments  which  the 
laws  denounced  against  the  disciples  of  that  system,  by  relating 
that  they  were  still  put  to  death,  and  in  vast  crowds,  and  almost 
without  exception,  through  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  notwith- 
standing their  uniform  disavowal  of  the  doctrines  of  Manes.  As 
the  denial  yielded  them  no  exemption,  and  was  found  to  yield 

'  Theodora  attempted  in  845  either  to  convert  or  to  exterminate  tliem,  and  her 
generals  undertook  to  accomplish  her  wishes  by  the  cross,  the  sword,  and  the  wa- 
ters. One  hundred  thousand  were  sacrificed  in  those  forms  in  a  single  campaign. 
"  Porro  Theodora  ut  refert  Porphyrogenneta,  Paulicianos  quoque  per  Orientera 
conatur  ad  veram  transferre  fidem,  sin  minus  extirpare,  ac  de  medio  tollere :  quae 
res  ingentibus  mails  Romanum  orbem  implevit.  Mittet  itaque  in  earn  rem  proce- 
rum  quosdam  ac  magistratuum.  Erant  illi  Algiri  Ducisque  filii  et  Sudales.  Hi 
alios  in  crucem  agebaut,  alios  gladio  ccedebant,  alios  rnari  profuudo  mergebant. 
Sublati  ad  centum  millia  ejusce  generis  suppliciis  ;  publicata  substantia  ac  fisco 
illata.     Pagi  Crit.  in  Bar.  anno  845,  no.  iv. 


280  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

them  none  by  so  vast  a  trial,  it  is  absurd  to  ascribe  their  persist- 
ing in  it,  to  a  hope  thereby  of  escaping  torture  and  death.  As  they 
had  only  to  abandon  their  own  sect  and  join  the  Greek  church  to 
escape  destruction,  as  is  seen  from  his  own  narrative,  if  they  had 
chosen  to  consult  their  safety  by  falsehood,  they  would  most 
surely  have  selected  that  course,  which  was  a  compliance  with 
the  laws  of  their  persecutors,  not  a  violation  of  them,  and  was  at- 
tended with  security  and  rewards,  not  dishonor  and  punishment. 
Their  persistence  in  the  profession  of  the  gospel,  and  rejection 
alike  of  Manicheism  and  the  superstitions  and  idolatries  of  the  na- 
tionalized church,  are  explicable,  therefore,  on  no  other  supposi- 
tion, than  that  they  were  ingenuous  and  faithful  witnesses  of 
Christ. 

But  why,  if  they  were  not  Manicheans,  were  they  thus  accused 
by  prelates  and  princes  of  holding  that  infamous  system,  and  put 
to  death  on  that  ground  in  vast  multitudes  through  a  long  suc- 
cession of  ages  ?  The  answer  is  at  once  a  sublime  vindication 
of  their  innocence,  and  a  stupendous  proof  of  the  ruthless  false- 
hood and  malignity  of  their  persecutors.  It  was  because  by  the 
laws  of  the  empire,  to  hold  the  doctrines  of  Manes  was  a  capital 
offence,  and  was  punished  by  infamy,  confiscation,  exile,  and 
dealh.^  They  were  falsely  accused,  because  no  just  ground  ex- 
isted of  accusation  against  them.  They  were  accused  of  Man- 
icheism, because  that  was  in  every  relation  the  most  infamous 
of  heresies,  had  been  capitally  punished  from  the  days  of  Theo- 
dosius,  swept  their  goods  into  the  treasury,  intercepted  them 
from  spreading  their  doctrines,  gratified  the  pride,  tyranny,  and 
malice  of  the  prelates  whose  power  was  endangered  by  their 
teachings,  and  was  adapted  to  deter  others  from  following  their 
example.  That  such  was  the  real  and  sole  reason  of  the  impu- 
tation, is  manifest  from  the  whole  history  of  the  persecution,  and 
is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  wherever  the  Theodosian  and  Jus- 
tinian codes  became  a  part  of  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  law,  the 
same  imputation  continued  often  in  the  ages  that  followed  to  the 
dawn  of  the  Reformation,  to  be  cast  on  such  as  dissented  from 
the  nationalized  church,  however  scriptural  were  their  doctrines, 
however  virtuous  their  lives,  and  however  notorious  the  false- 
hood of  the  accusation.  It  was  on  that  ground  that  the  Albigen- 
ses,  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  the  Cathari,  the  Publicani  and  others, 
were  through  four  centuries  swept  to  the  grave  by  thousands 
and  myriads. 

Nor  was  the  false  accusation,  and  wanton  slaughter  of  the  faith- 

'  Photii  contra  Manich.  lib.  i.  pp.  63,  64.    Cod.  Theod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  v.  1.  9. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  281 

ful  witnesses  of  God,  in  violation  in  any  degree  of  the  principles 
of  the  nationalized  church,  but  was  in  conformity  with  its  system 
of  usurpation  and  tyranny,  and  made  obligatory  by  its  canons. 
The  early  councils  sentenced  all  dissentients  from  the  national- 
ized church  to  excommunication  and  infamy,  and  those  of  a  later 
age  enjoined  it  on  all  as  a  duty  to  assail,  harass,  and  persecute 
them.  To  calumniate,  abuse,  rob,  outrage,  and  even  wantonly 
murder  them,  without  the  forms  of  law,  was  accordingly  consid- 
ered a  positive  virtue,  and  became  a  fashionable  mode  of  display- 
ing an  ardent  zeal  for  the  church.^ 

After  a  long  period  of  persecution  in  Armenia,  a  colony  of  the 
Paulicians  was  transplanted  by  the  emperor  in  755  into  Thrace. 
Another  body  followed  in  the  tenth  century  ;  and  they  soon  passed 
from  Thrace  into  Bulgaria,  lUyria,  Italy,  Germany,  and  France, 
propagated  their  doctrines  through  those  countries,  and  contin- 
ued to  fill  the  office  of  witnesses  amidst  the  fires  of  persecution, 
through  all  the  ages  that  followed  to  the  fifteenth  century ."^ 

There  were  in  the  west  also,  in  the  valleys  of  Piedmont  and 
the  south  of  Gaul,  bodies  of  dissentients  from  the  apostate  church, 
that  filled  that  office  still  more  conspicuously,  and  suflfered  sim- 
ilar persecution.  They  seem  in  France  to  have  first  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  Cathohc  hierarchy  and  civil  government,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eleventh  century.  Glaber,  an  annalist  of  the 
period,  relates  that  in  the  year  1017,  a  strange  sect  was  discov- 
ered at  Orleans,  which  had  long  grown  in  secret,  and  drawn 
many  into  its  toils,  not  only  of  the  weak  and  simple,  but  of 
the  more  learned  also  of  the  clergy,  among  whom  were  two 
distinguished  for  birth  and  intelligence,  and  in  high  esteem 
at  the  court.  On  their  dissent  from  the  Catholic  faith  becoming 
known,  an  inquisition  was  instituted  by  the  king,  the  nobles,  and 
the  clergy,  and  ten  ecclesiastics,  and  three  laics  avowing  their 
rejection  of  the  doctrines  and  rites  of  the  Catholic  church 
which  were  without  authority  from  the  Scriptures,  and  refu- 
sing to  recant,  were  committed  to  the  flames.  Others  of  the 
same  faith  were  at  the  same  period  detected  and  put  to  death  at 
Toulouse  and  many  other  places  in  the  west.^ 

They  are  admitted  by  their  enemies  to  have  dissented  from 
the  doctrines  of  the  Catholic  church,  on  the  ground  that  they 
were  not  the  doctrines  of  revelation  ;  and  to  have  rejected  the 
homage  or  superstitious  regard  of  the  cross,  the  invocation  of 

•  Labbei  Concil.  torn,  xxiii.  pp.  715-724. 

•  Mosheim,  Hist.  Church,  vol.  ii.  pp.  66-72  and  223-228.  Gibbon's  Hist.  c.  liv. 

•  Baronii  Annal.  an.  1017,  No.  3.     Natalis  Alexandri  Hist.  Eccl.  torn.  vi.  p.  475. 

36 


282  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  * 

saints,  the  doctrine  of  the  transubstantiation  of  the  eucharist  and 
of  regeneration  by  baptism,  and  the  theory  which  Cathohcs  held 
of  the  church.  It  is  acknowledged  also  that  they  had  existed  for 
a  long  time,  had  spread  through  a  large  part  of  France,  and  were 
very  numerous.  They  must  undoubtedly,  therefore,  have  sub- 
sisted for  several  generations,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  narra- 
tive inconsistent  with  the  supposition  that  they  were  descendants 
of  those  in  that  part  of  Gaul,  in  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  cen- 
turies, who  are  known  from  the  examples  of  Vigilantius,  Sere- 
nus,  and  others,  to  have  rejected  the  homage  of  images,  relics, 
and  saints. 

In  1025,  another  party  was  detected  at  Cambray  in  Belgic 
Gaul,  who  denied  the  Roman  Catholic  doctrine  of  baptismal  re- 
generation, transubstantiation,  and  purgatory,  rejected  the  sacra- 
ments of  penance  and  ordination,  the  invocation  of  martyrs,  the 
homage  of  the  cross,  and  the  veneration  of  images,  of  temples, 
and  altars  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  they  held  the  Scriptural  doc- 
trine, there  is  reason  to  believe,  of  justification  by  faith.  They 
were  seized  and  tried  by  a  synod,  and  are  said  to  have  at  length 
assented  to  the  doctrine  of  the  church  as  expounded  by  the  bish- 
op, a  portion  of  which  respecting  the  necessity  of  renovation  by 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  evangelical.^ 

Throijgh  a  large  part  of  the  eleventh  century,  Berenger  as- 
sailed the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  and  denounced  the  Cath- 
ohc  church  as  apostate,  and  induced  great  numbers  throughout 
Italy,  France,  and  England  to  embrace  his  views  ;^  and  in  1126, 
Peter  de  Bruis,  a  distinguished  teacher  of  the  Albigenses,  com- 
menced a  laborious  and  successful  ministry  of  near  twenty  years, 
during  which  he  assailed  the  errors  of  the  church  of  Rome,  and 
taught  the  gospel  to  great  numbers  throughout  Gascony,  Lan- 
guedoc,  Provence,  and  Dauphiny,  and  for  his  evangelical  testi- 
mony was  in  1 147  consigned  to  the  flames.  He  denied  the  doc- 
trine of  baptismal  regeneration,  the  transubstantiation  of  the  eu- 
charistic  elements,  and  the  necessity  of  temples,  churches,  and 
other  places  consecrated  by  superstitious  riles,  in  order  to  an  ac- 
ceptable worship,  denounced  the  adoration  of  the  cross,  and  re- 
jected masses,  prayers,  and  alms  for  the  dead.^  The  third  canon 
of  the  council  of  Toulouse  in  1219,  against  those  who  reject- 
ed the  peculiar  doctrines  and  rites  of  the  Catholics,  shows  that 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xix.  pp.  423-459. 

"  Baronii  Aiinal.  an.  1004, 1059,  107*  Fabcr's  ancieut  Vallenses  and  Albi- 
genses, p.  158. 

'  Baronii  Annal.  in  an.  1126,  No.  14, 15, 16. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  283 

there  were  many  at  that  period  in  the  south  of  France  who  con- 
tinued to  fulfil  the  office  of  witnesses.^ 

Peter  de  Bruis  was  followed  by  Henry,  whose  numerous  dis- 
ciples were  from  him  denominated  Henricians,  and  whose  doc- 
trine in  respect  to  the  eucharist,  Baronius  acknowledges  was  the 
same  as  that  adopted  by  the  Sacramentarians  of  the  sixteenth 
century.^  Bernard  represents  them  as  rejecting  the  dogma  of  the 
mass  and  baptismal  regeneration.^ 

Near  the  same  period,  about  thirty  persons  entertaining  those 
views  emigrated  from  Gascony  to  England  for  the  purpose  of 
teaching  their  doctrines,  and  being  seized,  condemned,  and  deliv- 
ered to  the  magistrates  for  punishment,  were  branded,  scourged, 
and  driven  out  without  shelter  to  perish  with  the  cold.^ 

In  1176,  a  number  of  the  Albigenses  denominated  good  men, 
were  arraigned  before  a  council  of  bishops  and  princes  at  Lom- 
bers,  in  the  province  of  Toulouse,  in  which  it  is  reported  there 
were  many  of  the  sect.  They  made  an  evangelical  confession, 
and  were  condemned  as  heretics.^  At  the  instance  of  the  pope, 
others  again  were  arraigned  in  1178,  and  condemned.''  A  cru- 
sade was  excited  against  them  by  the  pontiff  in  1204,  and  a  war 
waged  against  them  by  princes  and  inquisitors  for  fifty  years,  du- 
ring which  multitudes  of  both  sexes  were  slain  by  the  French 
troops,  and  great  numbers  consigned  to  the  flames,  their  cities 
and  villages  burned,  their  property  seized,  and  the  remnant  driv- 
en into  the  neighboring  countries.''' 

These  persecuted  dissentients  were  undoubtedly  true  witness- 
es of  Christ.  They  were  indeed  denounced  by  those  who  arraign- 
ed and  put  them  to  death  as  Manicheans,  and  the  charge  has 
been  repeated  by  moderns,  but  it  is  unsupported  by  any  credible 
testimony,  and  is  refuted  by  their  accusers  themselves.  In  the 
first  place,  it  is  admitted  by  the  authors  of  that  charge,  that  they 
were  not  accustomed  openly  to  avow  the  doctrine  of  Manes,  and 
asserted  that  they  disguised  and  concealed  their  faith  in  it,  and 
propagated  it  only  by  stealth.  There  was  by  their  own  acknowl- 
edgment, therefore,  no  public  evidence  that  they  held  that  doc- 
trine. Secondly,  it  is  admitted  that  when  accused  as  the  disci- 
ples of  Manes,  they  promptly  and  solemnly  repelled  the  charge 
as  a  wanton  calumny.  Thirdly,  it  is  acknowledged  that  they  pro- 

*  Labbei  Coiicil.  torn.  xxi.  pp.  226,  227. 

'  Baronii  Aniial.  an.  1147,  No.  .xviii.  ^  Bemardi  Epist.  241,  toin.  i.  p.  237. 

*  Lingard's  Hist.  Eugl.  vol.  ii.  chap.  v.  pp.  420,  421. 

*  Baronii  Annal.  an.  117G,  No.  iii.-xiv.  °  Ibid.  1178,  No.  xvii.-xxxvii. 

^  Raynaldi  Annal.  an.  1204,  No.  58-G5.  Thuaai  Hist.  Pra3f.  tom.  i.  p.  7,  lib.  vi. 
pp.  185-187. 


284  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

fessed  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  and  were  addicted  to  customs 
which  are  wholly  irreconcilable  with  Manicheism.  And  finally, 
it  is  admitted  that  multitudes  maintained  this  confession  under 
tortures  and  the  threat  of  a  cruel  death,  and  sealed  it  with  their 
blood.  By  the  concession  of  their  accusers,  therefore,  there  is 
all  the  evidence  from  the  Albigenses  themselves,  that  we  could 
naturally  have,  that  the  imputation  was  wholly  false.  No  stronger 
facts  can  be  conceived,  than  that  they  never  openly  taught  Man- 
icheism, that  they  never  owned  it  as  their  faith,  that  they  sol- 
emnly disowned  it,  and  finally  that  they  professed  the  doctrines 
of  the  gospel  which  are  most  formally  opposed  to  it,  and  contra- 
dicted its  discipline  by  their  daily  and  settled  practice. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  all  the  evidence  that  could  natu- 
rally exist,  that  their  persecutors  charged  them  with  Maniche- 
ism with  a  perfect  consciousness  that  the  imputation  was  false, 
and  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  them  objects  of  detestation  to 
the  people  and  princes,  and  procuring  their  death.  That  was, 
in  the  first  place,  in  accordance  with  their  principles.  All  who 
were  condemned  as  heretics  were  expressly  sentenced  by  the 
councils  and  popes  to  infamy,  and  Catholics  were  required  to 
treat  them  as  detestable,  without  virtue,  without  decency,  the 
vassals  of  Satan,  and  ministers  of  impiety  and  profligacy.^  It 
was  thence  in  their  judgment  not  only  lawful,  but  a  virtue,  to  ca- 
lumniate and  abuse  dissenters  from  the  national  church,  by  every 
imputation  that  could  display  their  zeal  or  gratify  their  malice. 
To  have  acknowledged  that  those  who  rejected  their  religion  as 
apostate,  and  whom  they  condemned  as  heretics,  were  yet  be- 
lievers of  all  that  God  teaches  in  his  word,  and  adorned  with  all 
the  virtues, — sobriety,  justice,  goodness,  truth,  purity,  piety — 
that  ever  distinguish  the  worshippers  of  God,  had  been  to  con- 
demn themselves. 

It  being  thus  in  accordance  with  their  principles  to  impute  to 
the  Albigenses  whatever  doctrines  and  vices  would  render  them 
odious,  the  reason  that  they  charged  them  with  Manicheism 
rather  than  any  other  heretical  doctrine  was,  as  in  respect  to  the 
Paulicians  in  the  Greek  empire,  that  by  the  Theodosian  and  Jus- 
tinian codes,  which  as  far  as  they  relate  to  religion  were  adopted 
by  the  princes  of  France  and  the  church  at  large  as  a  part  of  the 

'  Those  who  were  called  heretics  were  prohibited  by  the  Council  of  Laodicea 
from  entering  churches,  excluded  from  all  religious  assemblies,  and  debarred  from 
marriage  with  Catholics.  By  the  Council  of  Antioch  the  excommunicated  also  were 
excluded  from  all  religious  assemblies ;  and  it  soon  became  customary  formally  to 
sentence  them  to  infamy.     Labbei  Concil.  tom.  ii.  pp.  565,  1310. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  285 

canon  law,  the  belief  of  that  system  was  made  a  capital  offence, 
and  had  for  ages  been  punished  by  confiscation,  deprivation  of 
the  right  of  bequeathing  and  inheriting  property,  exile,  and  in 
some  cases  death  ;^  and  that  it  was  the  only  false  system  that 
had  been  uniformly  visited  with  those  extreme  penalties.  To 
condemn  the  Albigenses  as  Manicheans,  therefore,  was  to  pre- 
pare the  way,  on  the  one  hand,  not  only  for  the  confiscation  of 
their  property,  but  the  destruction  of  their  lives  ;  and  on  the 
other,  to  place  the  princes  under  a  necessity,  by  their  own  laws, 
of  inflicting  those  punishments.  Had  they  refused  to  execute 
the  mandates  of  the  bishops,  they  would  thereby  have  rendered 
themselves  obnoxious  to  discipline,  excommunication,  accusation 
as  heretics,  deposition  from  office,  and  extermination  by  fire  and 
sword.  This  is  not  mere  conjecture,  but  indisputable  truth. 
The  enactments  of  the  Theodosian  and  Justinian  codes  were 
expressly  alleged  by  the  third  council  of  Lateran  in  1 179,  as  the 
reason  of  their  delivering  the  Albigenses  and  others  to  the  civil 
power  for  punishment  f  and  the  fourth  Lateran,  in  1215,  threat- 
ened all  princes  who  refused  to  exterminate  them,  with  excom- 
munication, and  unless  they  gave  satisfaction  to  the  church  with- 
in a  year,  with  deprivation  of  authority  and  the  loss  of  their  es- 
tates.^ 

»  Codicis  Theod.  torn.  vi.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  v.  1.  3,  7,  9,  18,  35,  38,  40,  41,  64,  65. 

'  "  Althougii  the  churcli  in  its  discipline  is  contented  with  a  sacerdotal  sentence, 
and  does  not  inflict  a  bloody  vengeance,  yet  it  has  the  aid  of  the  laws  of  the  Cath- 
olic princes,  so  that  men,  often  from  the  fear  of  corporeal  punishment,  seek  the 
saving  remedy" — of  reconciliation.  Sicut  ait  beatus  Leo,  licet  ecclesiastica  dis- 
ciplina  sacerdotali  contenta  jndicio,  cruentas  non  efficiat  ultiones ;  Catholicorum 
tamen  principum  constitutionibus  adjuvatur,  ut  ssepe  quserant  homines  salutarereme- 
dium,  dum  corporali  super  se  metuunt  evenire  supplicium.  They  therefore  subject 
the  Cathari,  Patarini,  Publicani,  and  all  others  of  their  sentiments  residing  in  Al- 
bigense,  Toulouse,  Gascony,  and  other  places  to  an  anathema,  and  prohibit  their 
being  received  into  houses,  retained  as  tenants,  or  admitted  to  any  commercial  tran- 
sactions. Labbei  Concil.  tom.  xxii.  p.  232.  It  is  so  indisputable  that  it  was  on  the 
statutes  of  those  codes  against  the  Manicheans  that  the  church  proceeded  in  that 
bloody  crusade  against  the  Albigenses,  that  it  is  admitted  even  by  their  great  ca- 
lumniator Bossuet.  "  If  any  ask  what  kind  of  edicts  those  were  of  the  princes  by 
which  the  third  Lateran  Council  professes  the  church  was  assisted,  we  answer,  the 
edicts  of  the  ancient  emperors  against  heretics,  contained  in  the  codes  of  Theodosius 
and  Justinian,"  and  especially  the  fourth  and  fifth  laws  under  the  title  heretics  in 
the  Justinian  code,  which  constitute  Manicheism  a  capital  crime,  and  consign 
those  who  embrace  it  to  persecution.  Defens.  Decl.  Cler.  Gull.  pr.  i.  lib.  iv.  c.  3,  p. 
333.  And  that  it  was  the  settled  policy  of  the  prelates  thus  to  accuse  those  who 
denounced  their  usurpations  and  idolatries,  is  seen  from  the  fact  that  Manicheism 
was  imputed  to  classes  of  widely  differing  dissentients  for  many  ages,  and  made 
the  ground  of  consigning  them  to  death. 

'  Si  vero  dominus  temporalis  requisitus  et  monitus  ab  ecclesia,  terram  suam  pur- 
gare  neglexerit  ab  hac  hasretiea  focditate,  per  metropolitanum  et  ceteros  comprovin- 
ciales  episcopos  excommunicationis  vinculo  innodetur.    Et  si  satisfacere  contempserit 


286  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

It  was  thus  in  perfect  consistency  with  the  avowed  principles 
of  the  Cathohcs  that  they  falsely  accused  the  Albigenses,  and 
that  they  chose  to  defame  them  by  the  imputation  of  Maniche- 
ism,  rather  than  any  other  heretical  doctrine.  Their  imputation 
to  them,  therefore,  of  that  monstrous  system,  constitutes  no  evi- 
dence whatever  that  they  entertained  it. 

But  the  Waldenses  residing  in  the  Alpine  valleys  of  Piedmont, 
were  a  still  more  important  body  of  witnesses.  They  appear 
first  to  have  drawn  the  attention  of  the  papal  court  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  twelfth  century,  at  the  commencement  of  the  violent 
persecution  of  the  Albigenses,  but  are  admitted  by  Catholic  wri- 
ters to  have  subsisted  there  from  a  much  earlier  age.  Thus 
Reinerins,  an  inquisitor,  who  wrote  about  the  year  1254,  and  had 
once  belonged  to  the  Catharist  church,  denominating  them 
Leonists,  represents  their  sect  as  of  greater  age  than  any  other, 
its  origin  being  referred  by  some  to  the  times  of  the  apostles  ; 
and  as  more  generally  diffused  than  any  other,  being  found  in 
almost  every  country.^  Pilichdorf,  a  writer  near  the  close  of  the 
next  century,  represents  them  as  affirming  that  they  had  sub- 
sisted from  the  time  of  pope  Sylvester,  in  the  fourth  century.^ 
Claude  Scyssel,  archbishop  of  Turin,  who  wrote  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sixteenth  century,  also  slates  that  their  origin  was  re- 
ferred by  some  of  their  writers  to  the  same  period  f  and  such 
is  the  representation  of  all  the  principal  Waldensians,  who  have 
since  written  their  history. 

They  are  the  church,  undoubtedly,  symbolized  by  the  woman 
who  fled  into  the  desert  to  be  nourished  there  through  twelve 
hundred  and  sixty  days  ;  and  began  their  retreat  thither  soon  after 
the  nationalization  of  the  church  by  Constantine  and  his  succes- 
sors, and  attempt  to  compel  the  pure  worshippers  to  acquiesce  in 
their  usurpations  and  idolatries,  and  remained  in  seclusion  un- 
contaminaied  by  the  superstition  and  profligacy  which  debased 
the  churches  of  Italy,  Africa,  the  north  of  Gaul,  Germany, 
England,  and  Spain,  during  the  long  period  from  the  conversion 
of  the  Gothic  nations  till  near  the  completion  of  the  image  or 
subjugation  of  the  Catholic  church  out  of  the  Italian  patriarchate 
to  the  dominion  of  the  papacy  in  the  eleventh  century,  and  com- 
mencement of  the  war  of  that  tyrannical  and  bloody  power  on 

infra  annum,  si^)ificetur  hoc  summo  pontifice,  ut  extiinc  ipso  vassalios  ab  ejus  fideli- 
tute  denunciet  absolutes,  et  terram  exponat  Catliolicis  occupandam,  qui  earn  exter- 
minatis  hcereticis  sine  ulla  contradictioue  possideant.  Labbei  CouciJ.  torn.  xxii.  p. 
987. 

'  Faber's  Ancient    Vallenses,  p.  273.  "  Ibid.  p.  275.  ^  Ibid.  p.  276. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  287 

the  witnesses  of  Jesus  wherever  they  were  found  throughout  the 
western  empire. 

How  early  they  began  to  send  out  missionaries  to  propagate 
their  doctrines  is  not  known.  There  were,  from  1050  to  1250, 
great  numbers  of  Pauhcians,  Pubhcani,  Albigenses,  and  other 
dissentient  preachers  of  the  gospel  throughout  Lombardy,  France, 
and  Germany,  and  not  improbably  many  bearing  those  names 
were  Waldenses.  In  1179  several  of  the  disciples  of  Peter 
Waldo,  of  Lyons,  a  Waldensian  emigrant,  applied  to  pope 
Alexander  III.  to  license  their  preachers  in  the  missions  in  which 
they  were  already  engaged,  and  in  which  they  probably  met  ob- 
structions from  prelates  and  princes.  They  desired  a  license, 
doubtless,  simply  as  a  protection  from  persecution,  not  because 
they  regarded  themselves  as  unauthorized  to  preach  without  the 
pope's  permission.  From  that  period  they  and  their  converts  at 
Lyons  sent  missionaries  in  great  numbers  throughout  Italy, 
France,  and  Germany,  and  soon  drew  the  notice  of  the  papal 
court ;  were  persecuted  through  near  four  hundred  years,  and 
fulfilled  the  office  of  witnesses  with  a  fidelity  and  constancy 
worthy  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus.  Several  of  their  works  which 
still  survive,  that  were  undoubtedly  written  as  early  as  the  twelfth 
or  lliirleenth  century,  present  the  most  decisive  evidence  on  the 
one  hand  that  they  held  the  great  truths  of  the  gospel,  and  on 
the  other,  rejected  the  false  system  of  the  Catholic  church.  In 
their  treatise  of  Antichrist,  written  probably  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  they  exhibit  the  errors  and  idolatries  of  the  papacy  as 
the  great  characteristics  of  that  apostate. 

His  first  work  they  say  is,  that  the  homage  which  is  due  only 
to  God,  he  perverts  to  himself,  to  departed  saints,  their  images 
and  relics,  and  to  the  eucharist,  which  he  worships  equally  with 
God  and  Christ.  His  next  work  is  that  he  robs  Christ  of  his 
merits,  and  imputes  regeneration,  sanctification,  and  remission  to 
his  own  authority.  His  third  work  is  that  he  ascribes  regenera- 
tion which  is  wrought  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the  mere  rite  of 
baptism.  His  fourth,  that  he  resolves  the  whole  of  religion  into 
the  mass.  His  fifth  is  avarice  and  ambition.  His  sixth  an  offi- 
cial allowance  and  license  of  sin.  His  seventh  the  employment 
of  the  secular  power  to  compel  a  reception  of  his  apostate  doc- 
trines and  idolatrous  rites  ;  and  his  eighth,  that  he  hates  and  per- 
secutes the  disciples  of  Christ.^ 

This  testimony  against  the  false  doctrines,  idolatrous  worship, 
and  impious  tyranny  of  the  nationalized  church,  they  uttered 

>  Faber's  Ancient    Vallenses,  pp.  379-384. 


288  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

Still  more  emphatically  in  the  thirteenth  century.  They  are 
represented  by  Pilichdorf  as  teaching  that  God  alone  should  be 
praised  and  invoked,  as  holding  that  the  saints  do  not  intercede 
for  us  nor  acquire  a  title  to  blessings  except  for  themselves,  as 
rejecting  the  imaginary  sanctity  of  churches  and  cemeteries  con- 
secrated by  superstitious  rites  and  the  presence  of  relics,  and 
discarding  indulgences,  pilgrimages,  the  mass,  purgatory,  the 
worship  of  images,  and  the  veneration  of  the  cross,  and  de- 
nouncing the  pope  as  the  head  of  apostates.* 

These  doctrines  they  continued  to  maintain  through  the  ages 
that  followed.  Claude  Scyssel  represents  that  they  regarded  the 
Scriptures  as  the  only  rule  of  faith,  denied  the  right  of  synods  to 
legislate  over  the  divine  laws,  and  thence  ascribed  no  authority 
to  the  decrees  and  sentences  of  prelates  ;  that  they  placed  their 
sole  reliance  on  Christ  for  salvation,  denounced  the  Romish 
church  as  the  great  harlot  and  mistress  of  all  errors,  denied  the 
power  of  the  priest  to  forgive  sins,  and  rejected  the  mass,  the 
worship  of  saints  and  images,  the  homage  of  relics,  transubstan- 
liation,  purgatory,  and  the  consecration  of  places  by  pagan  and 
idolatrous  rites.^     Such  is  the  testimony  also  of  Thuanus.^ 

By  the  confession  thus  of  their  enemies,  their  testimony 
against  the  errors  and  idolatries  of  the  antichristian  church  was 
for  several  centuries  before  the  Reformation  as  clear  and  em- 
phatic as  that  which  was  at  that  period  uttered  by  the  Protest- 
ants themselves  ;  and  they  have  continued  to  adhere  to  the  truth 
without  variation  through  every  subsequent  age,  while  the  Lu- 
theran and  Reformed  churches  on  the  continent  have  either 
apostatized  to  a  false  faith,  or  turned  to  infidelity. 

A  similar  testimony  to  the  truth  was  uttered  by  the  Wicklif- 
ites,  Lollards,  and  Bohemians  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries.  It  was  as  characteristic  almost  of  those  dissentients, 
as  it  was  of  Luther,  Zuinglius,  Calvin,  and  their  followers,  that 
they  held  the  Scriptures  to  be  the  only  rule  of  faith,  and  relied 
on  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  for  salvation  in  contradistinction  from 
rites  and  works,  denounced  the  pope  as  the  man  of  sin,  and  the 
Roman  church  as  apostate,  condemned  the  homage  of  saints, 
images,  and  relics,  and  rejected  the  mass. 

There  is  thus.satisfactory  evidence  that  apart  from  thePaulicians 
during  the  period  in  which  they  fulfilled  their  office  in  the  east- 
ern empire,  there  have  been  two  lines  of  teachers  and  recipients 
of  the  word  of  God  who  have  maintained  its  truth  in  opposition 

»  Faber's  Ancient    Vallenses,  pp.  415-420.  '  Ibid.  pp.  424-431. 

*  Thuani  Hist.  lib.  vi.  torn.  i.  pp.  185-189,  lib.  xxvii.  torn.  ii.  pp.  13,  14,  15. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  289 

to  antichrist,  and  in  great  numbers  sealed  their  testimony  with 
their  blood  ; — the  Waldenses  in  Piedmont,  and  the  Albigenses  in 
France,  until  their  dispersion  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  sub- 
sequently their  disciples  and  successors,  the  Wicklifites,  Lol- 
lards, Bohemians,  and  Protestants. 

It  is  no  proof  that  these  dissentients  from  the  apostate  church 
were  not  the  witnesses  of  God,  that  they  fulfilled  their  office  but 
inadequately,  that  their  views  on  the  subjects  of  their  testimony 
were  often  imperfect,  and  that  they  fell  on  others  into  errors.  It 
was  not  necessary  in  order  to  their  being  witnesses,  that  they 
should  understand  and  proclaim  all  truth,  or  be  wholly  free  from 
imperfections.  Such  qualifications  no  uninspired  teacher  ever 
possessed.  It  was  enough  to  constitute  them  witnesses,  that 
they  understood  in  a  good  degree  and  proclaimed  the  great  truths 
which  indisputably  formed  the  peculiar  subjects  of  their  teach- 
ings, and  that  they  denounced  the  opposite  errors  of  the  apostate 
worshippers. 

And  iinally,  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  rulers  whom  they  thus 
denounced,  endeavored  to  injure  and  destroy  them,  assailed  them 
with  obloquy,  trampled  them  down  with  oppression,  subjected 
them  to  the  most  cruel  torture,  and  put  myriads  and  millions  of 
them  to  death  in  the  most  ignominious  and  horrible  forms. 

The  Greek  emperors  and  bishops  united  in  the  persecution  of 
those  of  them  who  uttered  their  testimony  in  the  east.  They 
commenced  the  work  of  false  accusation,  imprisonment,  confis- 
cation, and  slaughter,  almost  immediately  after  their  existence 
became  known  ;  and  continued  it  in  Armenia  through  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years,  during  which,  vast  numbers  were  decapi- 
tated, crucified,  consigned  to  the  flames,  and  plunged  into  rivers  ;, 
and  their  villages  and  dwellings  burned,  their  property  seized,  and 
the  lives  of  the  survivors  harassed  with  every  species  of  oppres- 
sion and  outrage. 

Those  of  them  who  were  transported  from  their  native  land 
and  colonized  in  Thrace  and  Bulgaria,  continued  to  suffer  perse- 
cution from  the  Greek  emperors  through  several  ages,  and  sub- 
sequently, as  they  migrated  into  the  western  empire,  from  the 
princes  of  Germany,  Italy,  and  France,  down  to  the  sixteenth 
century. 

In  like  manner  the  rulers  and  prelates  of  the  west  united  in 
the  persecution  of  those  within  their  dominions.  It  was  by  the 
instigation  of  the  pope  and  the  subordinate  prelates,  tiiat  the 
princes  of  France,  Savoy,  Germany,  and  Italy,  were  led  to 
make  war  on  them.  They  commenced  it  against  Claude  of  Turin, 

37 


290  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

renewed  it  against  the  Paulicians  immediately  on  their  entrance 
into  Germany,  Italy,  and  Gaul,  and  continued  it  through  five 
hundred  years  against  the  Albigenses,  Waldenses,  Wicklifites, 
and  Bohemians,  during  which  great  multitudes  were  swept  to 
the  grave  by  the  sword  and  the  fagot.  The  war  of  violence  and 
outrage  was  commenced  against  the  Protestants  also  within  a 
few  years  after  the  proclamation  of  the  gospel  by  them,  and  con- 
tinued on  a  vast  scale  for  two  centuries  in  Italy,  Spain,  France, 
Germany,  and  the  British  isles,  never  wholly  ceased  except  dur- 
ing a  short  period  after  the  commencement  of  the  French  revo- 
lution, and  has  within  a  few  years  been  renewed  in  Italy,  Swit- 
zerland, Germany,  France,  and  Spain.  Not  one  of  the  classes 
through  that  long  period,  who  fulfilled  the  office  of  witnesses  for 
God,  escaped  the  vengeance  of  those  antichristian  powers. 

Great  numbers  of  these  witnesses  have  relied  solely  on  their 
testimony  for  defence  against  their  enemies,  contenting  them- 
selves with  the  profession  of  their  faith,  and  vindication  of  the 
rights  of  God,  and  the  proclamation  of  his  threatenings  of  ven- 
geance on  antichrist ;  and  then,  without  resorting  to  arms  for  the 
protection  of  their  persons  or  maintenance  of  their  liberties, 
calmly  submitting  to  obloquy,  torture,  and  martyrdom,  for  the 
sake  of  Christ, 

This  was  as  generally  and  conspicuously  characteristic  of 
those  of  them  who  were  seized  by  their  enemies,  torn  on  the 
rack,  and  consigned  to  the  flames,  as  was  their  profession  of  the 
truths  of  the  gospel,  and  denunciation  of  the  errors  and  idolatries 
of  their  persecutors.  It  was  so  eminent  in  the  vast  crowd  of 
the  Albigenses  who  were  led  to  the  stake,  as  to  excite  the  won- 
der of  their  enemies,  and  raise  the  conviction  that  they  were  sus- 
tained by  supernatural  aids.  Bernard,  who  had  exerted  himself 
to  induce  the  magistrates  to  exterminate  them  with  fire  and 
sword,  admitted  that  they  met  death  with  fortitude  and  cheerful- 
ness, but  had  the  folly  and  malice  to  ascribe  it  to  diabolical  in- 
fluence.^ Fortitude,  meekness,  and  joy,  were  displayed  in  an 
equal  degree  by  the  martyrs  at  Orleans,  Lombers,  and  other 
places  in  Gaul,  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  and  the 
Waldenses  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth.  Those  who  were 
butchered  in  Calabria  are  related  to  have  died  with  a  cheerfulness 
and  constancy  worthy  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus.     A  Catholic 

'  Mirantur  aliqiii,  quod  nou  modo  patienter,  sed  et  laeti  lit  vidcbatur,  duceren- 
tur  ad  mortem  ;  sed  qui  minus  advertuut,  quanta  sit  potestas  diaboli,  non  modo  in 
corpora  hominum,  sed  efiam  in  corda  qua;  semel  pcrmissus  jiossederit.  Bemiirdi 
in  Cant.  ser.  CG,  c.  13,  toin.  i.  p.  1499. 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  291 

spectator  represents  the  meekness  and  patience  with  which  they 
went  to  martyrdom  as  astonishing.  And  an  historian  of  the 
same  communion  who  relates,  in  narrating  the  extermination  of 
the  colony,  that  some  had  their  throats  cut,  some  were  sawn 
asunder,  and  others  thrown  from  a  high  cliff,  adds,  that  while 
the  father  saw  his  son  put  to  death,  and  the  son  his  father,  they 
not  only  exhibited  no  symptom  of  grief,  but  said  joyfully  that 
they  should  become  angels  of  God.^  And  such  were  the  courage, 
cheerfulness,  and  trust  in  Christ,  with  which  with  scarce  an  ex- 
ception, the  vast  crowd  met  the  trials  of  torture  and  death,  who 
were  decapitated,  strangled,  or  committed  to  the  flames,  in  Italy 
and  Spain,  through  a  long  series  of  years,  till  they  were  exter- 
minated, and  in  France  likewise,  the  Netherlands,  Germany,  and 
the  British  isles. 

Such  are  the  proofs,  obscure  and  inadequate  as  their  history  is, 
that  during  the  long  apostasy  of  the  visible  church,  God  raised 
up  teachers  and  communities,  who  have  fulfilled  in  an  eminent 
manner  the  office  of  witnesses  for  him,  and  presented  a  conspi- 
cuous fulfilment  of  the  prophecy.  Could  we  call  up  from  their 
graves  the  crowds  who  slumber  in  the  plains  of  Italy,  the  deep 
glens  of  the  Alps,  the  ancient  cities  of  Gaul,  Britain,  and  Ger- 
many, the  valleys  of  Spain,  the  glades  of  the  Netherlands,  who 
were  represented  by  this  symbol,  and  who  sealed  their  testimony 
with  their  blood,  how  vast  would  be  the  army  !  How  illustrious 
would  they  appear  as  witnesses  for  him  could  they  repeat  to  us 
their  assertion  of  his  truth  in  opposition  to  their  antichristian  per- 
secutors, and  depict  the  trials  they  endured  in  allegiance  to  him  ! 
And  could  they  reveal  to  us  the  tokens  which  he  gave  them  of 
his  approbation,  the  interpositions  by  which  he  upheld  and  often 
delivered  them,  and  the  great  results  both  of  mercy  and  of  judg- 
ment which  he  made  to  spring  from  their  agency,  how  majestic 
a  verification  would  they  form  of  the  promise,  that  they  should 
be  what  Moses  and  Elijah  were  both  to  him  and  to  his  enemies  ! 

Grotius  interprets  the  two  witnesses  of  the  two  classes,  Jews 
and  Gentiles,  of  which  the  church  at  Jerusalem  consisted  after 
the  building  of  JEYm  by  Hadrian.  But  that  is  against  the  ana- 
logy of  the  olive  trees  and  lamps  by  which  they  are  symbolized, 
and  which  sustain  relations  to  each  other  like  those  of  teachers 
and  recipients  of  instruction,  not  like  those  of  Jews  and  Gentiles, 
each  of  whom  embraced  both  classes.  It  is  in  contradiction  also 
to  the  use  in  the  next  verse  of  the  terra  Gentiles,  to  represent 
idolaters.     The  witnesses  are  true  teachers  and  worshippers,  in 

'  McCrie's  Hist.  Reforin.  in  Italy,  pp.  306,  307. 


292  THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

contradistinction  from  whom  Gentiles  are  apostates.  To  make 
one  of  them  a  Gentile  therefore,  is  to  represent  him  as  an  apos- 
tate instead  of  a  witness. 

Eichhorn  regards  Ananus  and  Jesus,  two  high  priests  who 
were  slain  by  the  Jewish  Zealots,  as  the  two  witnesses  ;  but  they 
were  rejectors  of  the  gospel,  not  teachers  and  vindicators  of  its 
doctrines  in  opposition  to  apostates.  He  also  regards  the  forty- 
two  months  and  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  days,  as  used  pro- 
verbially, or  figuratively  to  denote  a  season  of  calamity,  rather 
than  a  definite  period  of  time.  But  that  is  against  the  law  of 
symbolization.  There  is  no  analogy  between  a  specific  duration 
and  calamity,  or  sorrow.  Time  is  predicable  of  joy  and  pros- 
perity, as  well  as  of  suffering  and  misfortune.  There  is  no 
counterpart  to  a  specific  period  of  time,  but  a  period  that  is  de- 
termined by  some  resembling  movement  of  the  body  by  which 
it  is  measured.  But  the  only  movement  of  the  earlh  that  is  ana- 
logous to  its  revolution  on  its  axis,  is  its  revolution  round  the 
sun  ;  and  in  like  manner  its  circuit  round  the  sun  is  the  only 
movement  of  the  moon  that  is  analogous  to  its  revolution  on  its 
axis.  The  only  periods  therefore  which  the  smaller  revolutions, 
or  the  periods  they  occupy,  can  be  employed  to  symbolize,  are 
those  of  the  larger  revolutions,  which  are  as  specific  as  they 
themselves  are. 

Interpreters  generally  concur  in  regarding  the  witnesses  as 
representatives  of  true  teachers  and  worshippers,  and  the  gen- 
tiles of  apostates.  They  differ  much,  however,  in  their  exposi- 
tion of  subordinate  parts  of  the  symbol. 

Daubuz,  following  his  usual  method  of  determining  the  sym- 
bolic import  of  terms  by  what  he  regards  as  their  metaphoric 
use,  interprets  the  command  to  measure  the  temple,  the  altar, 
and  the  worshippers,  as  a  command  to  take  possession  of  the 
true  worship  and  worshippers  of  God,  and  applies  it  to  the  Re- 
formers of  the  sixteenth  century.  But  there  is  no  analogy  be- 
tween measuring  an  object  and  taking  possession  of  it.  It  is 
measured  to  ascertain  ils  (juantity  or  proportion,  and  in  order  to 
determine  its  value,  or  adaptation  to  a  specific  use.  It  is  taken 
possession  of  because  of  right,  and  in  order  to  appropriation  and 
enjoyment.  It  is  moreover  to  make  the  command  a  solecism. 
As  those  whom  the  apostle  symbolized  are  true  worshippers,  to 
command  them  to  take  possession  of  the  true  worship  and  wor- 
shippers, were  to  command  them  to  take  possession  of  themselves 
and  their  acts. 

Mr.  Elliott  regards  the  rod  as  a  symbol  of  the  supreme  magis- 


THE  TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES.  293 

trate,  and  interprets  the  measuring  of  the  temple,  the  allar,  and 
the  worshippers  of  the  adoption  of  the  Protestant  cliurches  by 
civil  rulers  and  institution  as  national  establishments.  But  what 
analogy  is  there  between  measuring  a  temple  already  built,  and 
the  erection  of  another  edifice  ?  If  the  civil  rulers  were  the  rod 
by  which  the  dimensions  of  the  model  were  determined,  who 
were  the  builders  of  the  »ew  structure  ?  Not  the  prophet,  nor 
those  whom  he  symbolized.  He  was  the  representative  of  wit- 
nesses ;  not  of  kings  and  legislators  ;  of  teachers  and  recipients 
of  the  truth  in  distinction  from  apostates  and  usurpers  of  the 
rights  of  God,  not  of  makers  and  executors  of  civil  laws ;  and 
the  representative  of  witnesses  who  fulfilled  their  office  only  by 
the  utterance  and  vindication  of  truth,  not  by  the  authority  of  the 
civil  magistrate.  If  any  one  wills  to  injure  them,  fire  proceeds 
out  of  their  mouth  and  devours  their  enemies  ;  and  if  any  one 
wills  to  injure  them,  so  must  he  be  killed,  not  by  any  other  agen- 
cy. It  is  tlius  expressly  shown  that  they  make  use  only  of  their 
testimony  for  God,  the  assertion  and  vindication  of  the  great 
truths  of  his  word,  in  defence  of  themselves  against  their  ene- 
mies. To  resort  to  the  authority  of  the  civil  magistrate,  or  the 
sword,  were  to  desert  the  office  of  a  witness.  No  construction 
therefore  could  be  more  inconsistent  with  the  symbol,  or  the 
character  of  the  witnesses.  It  contradicts  analogy,  confounds 
the  instrument  with  the  agent,  and  assigns  to  the  witnesses  a 
protection  from  their  enemies  the  direct  reverse  of  that  ascribed 
to  them.  Those  civil  rulers,  moreover,  in  erecting  the  Protest- 
ant churches  into  national  establishments,  were  guilty  of  a 
usurpation  of  the  rights  of  God,  and  in  that  relation  therefore 
in  place  of  witnesses,  were  of  the  gentiles  of  the  outer  court 
who  were  to  tread  the  holy  city.  For  they  proceeded  in  that  act 
on  the  assumption  that  they  had  a  right  to  dictate  to  their  sub- 
jects their  religious  faith  and  worship.  They  claimed  dominion 
over  their  relations  to  (xod,  and  presented  their  will  as  the  reason 
that  they  should  receive  or  reject  truth,  and  oifer  or  not  offer  a 
particular  worship.  But  that  is  to  usurp  the  place  of  God.  The 
reason  that  he  is  to  be  worshipped  is  tliat  he  is  God  ;  not  that 
civil  rulers  require  that  he  should  be  worshipped.  The  reason 
that  the  kjcriptures  are  to  be  made  the  rule  of  faith,  is  that  they 
are  a  revelation  from  him  ;  not  that  kings  and  legislators  enjoin 
their  reception  as  his  word.  And  the  reason  that  he  is  to  be 
worshipped  in  this  or  that  manner,  is  that  he  requires  or  author- 
izes it,  not  that  it  is  appointed  by  human  authority.  They  then 
who  set  aside  those  ^rounds  ol   obli"'alJ.on  and  substitute  their 


294  THE   TEMPLE  AND  WITNESSES. 

will  in  their  place,  attempt  the  tlirone  of  the  Almighty,  arrogate 
his  rights,  and  demand  for  themselves  a  homage  that  is  due  only 
to  him.  Their  procedure  implies  that  God  has  no  absolute  and 
underived  right  to  reign  ;  that  his  title  to  the  homage  of  their 
subjects,  and  the  authority  of  his  laws,  are  created  by  their  will ; 
that  he  is  their  subordinate  therefore,  and  that  whatever  he  re- 
ceives of  awe  and  acknowledgment  is  their  gift.  In  erecting  the 
Protestant  churches  into  national  establishments  therefore,  in- 
stead of  fulfilling  the  office  of  witnesses,  they  acted  the  part  of 
the  ten-horned  wild  beast,  one  of  wliose  most  peculiar  charac- 
teristics is,  the  usurpation  in  that  manner  of  the  throne  of  God, 
and  claim  of  dominion  over  the  obligations  and  consciences  of 
his  subjects.  And  they  accordingly  who  sanction  that  usurpa- 
tion, are  guilty,  like  the  worshippers  of  the  wild  beast,  of  paying 
a  homage  to  their  rulers,  which  is  due  only  to  the  Almighty. 

Mr.  Mede,  Mr.  Jurieu,  and  Mr.  Whiston,  regarded  the  temple 
and  the  outer  court  as  representative  of  two  periods  of  the  church  : 
the  one  pure,  embracing  ihe  first  centuries  ;  the  other  following 
that,  far  longer,  and  corrupt.  But  it  has  no  foundation  in  anal- 
ogy. There  are  no  such  relations  between  an  edifice  and  the 
area  which  surrounds  it,  as  fits  the  one  to  symbolize  the  first 
ages  of  a  church,  and  the  other  a  subsequent  and  proportionally 
longer  period.  It  is  against  the  representation  also  that  the  wit- 
nesses who  are  the  pure  worshippers,  are  to  be  cotemporaneous 
with  the  Gentiles  to  whom  the  outer  court  is  given,  and  to  testify 
against  their  false  doctrines,  impious  assumptions,  and  idolatrous 
worship  while  they  tread  the  holy  city. 

Mr.  Whiston  also  regarded  the  armed  resistance  of  the  Wal- 
denses  and  Albigenses,  and  slaughter  of  their  enemies,  as  a  veri- 
fication of  the  prophecy,  that  if  any  one  wills  to  injure  them,  he 
must  be  put  to  death  by  fire  proceeding  from  their  mouth.  But 
that  is  expressly  against  the  prediction,  which  exhibits  the  instru- 
ment of  their  defence  as  proceeding  from  their  mouth.  Their 
words  were  to  prove  fire  to  their  enemies,  and  devour  them,  be- 
cause they  were  to  be  tlie  threatenings  contained  in  the  Scrip- 
tures of  the  avenging  judgments  by  which  God  has  foreshown 
that  he  is  to  destroy  them.  Their  office  was  simply  to  testify, 
not  to  fight,  and  to  testify  by  proclaiming  and  vindicating  the 
rights  of  God,  in  opposition  to  the  usurpations,  false  doctrines, 
and  superstitions  of  apostates.  It  is  fulfilled  accordingly  only  by 
professing  and  teaching,  not  by  the  sword,  or  any  other  instru- 
ment of  violence.  To  defend  themselves  by  force  against  the 
attacks  of  armies,  and  to  slaughter  enemies,  was  not  to  proclaim 


THE  SLAUGHTER,  ETC.,  OF  THE  WITNESSES.  295 

the  truth.  Whether  just  or  unjust,  expedient  or  inexpedient,  it 
cannot  be  considered  as  belonging  to  that  agency,  any  more  than 
any  other  acts  wholly  removed  from  the  profession  and  vindica- 
tion of  truth.  When  the  Albigenses  and  Waldenses  therefore 
rehnquished  that  profession,  and  assumed  the  sword,  they  ceased 
to  act  in  the  character  of  witnesses. 


SECTION  XXVI. 


CHAPTER    XI.    7-14. 

THE   SLAUGHTER  AND  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  WITNESSES. 

And  when  they  would  finish  their  testimony,  the  wild  beast  which 
ascends  out  of  the  abyss,  will  make  war  on  them,  and  will  vanquish 
them,  and  will  kill  them  ;  and  place  their  dead  body  in  the  street  of 
the  great  city  which  is  spiritually  called  Sodom  and  Egypt,  where 
also  their  Lord  was  crucified.  And  of  the  peoples,  and  tribes,  and 
tongues,  and  nations,  they  look  on  their  dead  body  three  days  and  a 
half;  and  they  will  not  suffer  their  dead  bodies  to  be  placed  in  a 
sepulchre.  And  they  who  dwell  on  the  earth  rejoice  over  them, 
and  exult,  and  will  send  gifts  to  one  another ;  for  these  two  pro- 
phets tried  them  who  dwell  on  the  earth.  And  after  three  days  and 
a  half  the  spirit  of  life  from  God  entered  into  them,  and  they  stood 
on  their  feet.  And  great  fear  fell  on  those  beholding  them.  And 
they  heard  a  loud  voice  from  heaven  saying  to  them,  Ascend  here. 
And  they  ascended  to  heaven  in  the  cloud ;  and  their  enemies  be- 
held them.  And  in  the  same  hour,  there  was  a  great  earthquake, 
and  the  tenth  part  of  the  city  fell ;  and  seven  thousand  men  of  name 
were  killed  by  the  earthquake  ;  and  the  rest  became  fearful,  and 
gave  glory  to  the  God  of  heaven.  The  second  woe  is  passed:  be- 
hold the  third  woe  comes  quickly. 

That  the  witnesses  would  finish  their  testimony  at  the  time  to 
which  the  vision  refers,  may  be  from  the  conviction  that  the  time 
has  come  to  utter  their  last  protest  in  favor  of  the  truth,  and 
against  the  errors  of  the  false  church  ;  that  the  attitude  assumed 
by  the  civil  rulers  brings  the  contest  between  them  and  Christ's 
followers  to  a  crisis ;  or  that  their  testimony  is  no  longer  necessary, 
from  changes  in  the  condition  of  the  apostate  church  that  divest 
it  of  its  power,  and  insure  its  speedy  overthrow.     Such  was  emi- 


296  THE  SLAUGHTER  AND  RESURRECTION 

nently  the  persuasion  of  the  Protestants  generally  on  the  subver- 
sion of  the  French  hierarchy  and  the  conquest  of  the  papal  states 
towards  the  close  of  the  last  century,  and  at  the  grant  of  tolera- 
tion to  their  subjects  by  the  great  European  powers  at  the  fall 
of  the  French  empire.  That  the  Catholic  priesthood  could  re- 
cover in  such  a  degree  as  it  already  has  from  its  depression,  re- 
sume a  powerful  influence  over  most  of  the  cabinets,  and  renew 
a  persecution  of  the  witnesses,  was  neither  anticipated  nor  re- 
garded as  possible.  So  far  from  looking  forward  to  such  a 
change,  the  Protestants  of  the  period  of  the  effusion  of  the  first 
vials,  commenced  their  great  efforts  for  the  conversion  of  the 
world,  and  continue  generally  to  the  present  hour  to  cherish  the 
most  confident  expectations  of  success. 

The  wild  beast  that  ascends  out  of  the  abyss,  is  the  symbol 
of  the  usurping  and  j^ersecuting  civil  rulers  of  the  same  nations 
as  were  to  tread  the  holy  city  during  forty-two  months,  as  Avill 
be  shown  in  the  exposition  of  the  following  chapters,  in  which 
its  characteristics  are  more  fully  exhibited.  Its  persecuting  ca- 
reer is  not  to  terminate  till  after  its  rise  out  of  the  abyss.  Its 
judgment,  however,  has  already  begun  in  the  effusion  of  the  first 
vials,  and  it  is  in  the  exasperation  and  despair  to  which  events 
that  are  to  follow  its  rise  out  of  the  abyss  will  drive  it,  that  it  is 
to  turn  and  endeavor  to  purchase  support,  or  disarm  opposition 
by  the  slaughter  of  the  witnesses. 

Their  slaughter  is  obviously  from  many  considerations  to  be 
literal.  While  the  law  of  symbolization  requires  that  represen- 
tative agents  should  be  of  a  dignity  and  significance  proportioned 
to  those  whom  they  represent,  yet  often  of  necessity,  from  the 
want  of  adequate  representatives,  they  are  inferior.  This  is 
eminently  true  of  several  of  the  terrific  symbols.  The  seven- 
headed  dragon,  and  the  seven-headed  wild  beast,  mighty  and  ter- 
rible as  they  are,  are  greatly  inferior  to  the  vast  combination  of 
malignant  and  destructive  agents  whom  they  represent.  But 
were  the  death  of  the  witnesses  any  thing  less  than  a  literal  and 
violent  death  ; — were  it  a  mere  compulsion  to  silence,  or  inter- 
ception from  the  public  offering  of  a  pure  worship,  which  is  the 
only  other  import  that  can  be  assigned  to  it,  the  symbol  would 
be  far  more  significant  than  that  which  it  denotes.  Nor  is  a  vio- 
lent death  a  proper  symbol  of  a  compulsion  to  silence.  The 
states  are  wholly  dissimilar.  The  one  is  a  deprivation  not  only 
of  all  power  of  acting  through  the  body,  but  of  life  itself.  The 
other  a  mere  deprivation  or  suspension  of  the  power  of  exerting 
he  faculties  in  speech,  while  life  itself,  activity  and  freedom  of 


OP  THE  WITNESSES.  297 

thought,  and  the  power  of  manifesting  it  to  others  in  many  modes, 
remain  unimpaired.  An  obstruction  therefore  of  the  organs  of 
speech,  or  the  power  of  utterance,  were  a  proper  symbol  of  a 
compulsory  silence,  not  death,  which  is  a  termination  of  all 
activity  and  sense,  a  release  of  the  spirit  from  the  dominion  of 
men,  and  transference  to  another  scene  of  existence. 

Nor  is  it  any  objection  that  in  this  exposition  death  is  inter- 
preted as  literal,  and  not  analogical ;  since  if  the  death  of  the 
witnesses  is  to  be  literal,  it  is  not  in  violation  of  analogy,  but  to 
avoid  its  violation,  that  it  is  represented  by  a  literal  death. 
There  is  no  condition  of  life,  there  is  no  variation  of  existence 
here,  that  is  adapted  to  symbolize  that  change.  To  have  em- 
ployed any  other  change  or  condition  to  symbolize  it,  would 
have  been  to  misrepresent  it  by  the  suggestion  or  assumption 
of  resemblances  that  do  not  exist.  To  avoid  a  false  sym- 
bolization  therefore,  it  was,  as  in  other  instances  of  similar 
agents,  indispensable  that  it  should  be  made  the  representative 
of  itself. 

The  city  Jerusalem,  in  which  the  temple  stood,  is  the  symbol 
of  the  ten  kingdoms,  in  winch  the  nationalized  churches  are  situ- 
ated, and  in  expression  of  its  character  as  in  revolt  from  God,  is 
called  Sodom  and  Egypt,  aj)ostate,  intolerant  of  his  people,  and 
idolatrous. 

The  place  where  Christ  was  crucified,  was  an  open  elevated 
space  without  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  and  on  one  of  the  princi- 
pal entrances  to  the  city.  The  street  where  the  dead  body  of 
the  witnesses  is  to  be  placed,  represents  parts  therefore  of  the 
ten  kingdoms,  bearing  a  relation  of  conspicuity  and  importance 
to  the  apostate  hierarchies,  like  that  which  the  great  entrance  to 
Jerusalem  that  passed  along  by  the  foot  of  Calvary  bore  to  that 
city ; — parts  of  those  kingdoms  from  which  tiiose  hierarchies 
largely  derive  their  sustenance,  wealth,  and  worshippers. 

The  people  and  nations  who  gaze  on  their  bodies,  are  the  sub- 
jects of  the  wild  beast  who  approve  of  their  slaughter.  The 
trial  to  which  the  witnesses  put  those  who  dwell  on  the  earth,  is 
the  trial  of  their  principles  and  conduct  by  the  word  of  God,  the 
refutation  of  their  false  doctrines,  the  rebuke  of  their  idolatries, 
and  forewarning  of  the  judgments  by  which  they  are  to  be  over- 
whelmed. The  refusal  to  allow  their  burial,  implies  that  there 
are  to  be  persons  who  will  desire  to  perform  for  tiiem  that  office, 
and  yields  additional  proof  that  their  death  is  to  be  literal.  It  is 
not  easy  to  conceive  what  disposition  that  would  be  of  witnesses 
merely  compelled  to  be  silent,  which  should  be  to  them,  what 

38 


298  THE  SLAUGHTER  AND  RESURRECTION 

burial  is  lo  a  dead  body.  Would  it  be  banishment  to  a  distant 
scene  ?  But  what  were  that  but  to  restore  them  to  freedom  and 
activity  ? 

The  exultation  over  them,  and  mutual  congratulations  of  those 
who  dwell  on  the  earth,  imply  that  they  are  to  deem  them  and 
their  adherents  as  forever  silenced,  and  regard  themselves  as 
freed  from  the  annoyances  of  a  refutation  of  tlieir  principles,  and 
a  denunciation  of  their  usurpations  with  which  the  witnesses  had 
before  tried  them. 

In  this  slaughter  all  the  witnesses  are  to  fall.  As  the  two 
symbol  witnesses  represent  all  who  are  to  fulfil  their  office,  and 
as  the  symbol  war  was  made  on  both  of  them,  and  they  were 
both  slain,  their  death  must  be  regarded  as  symbolizing  the  death 
of  all  whom  they  represent.  They  are  accordingly  spoken  of 
throughout  as  a  class.  There  is  no  indication  that  any  are  to 
escape.  They  are  all  exhibited  as  dead,  and  denied  a  burial ; 
and  all  as  raised,  and  called  lo  the  cloud  in  heaven  ;  and  the 
exultation  of  their  enemies  at  their  slaughter  and  exposure  to  the 
public  gaze,  indicates  that  they  are  to  be  regarded  as  totally  de- 
stroyed ;  and  as  they  are  to  comprise  all  the  known  fkithful  and 
influential  assertors  and  vindicators  of  the  truth,  it  indicates  that 
the  persecution  is  to  extend  to  all  the  denominations  of  the  church 
that  contain  true  believers,  and  to.  be  common  therefore  to  all  the 
ten  kingdoms.  It  implies  also  that  the  persecuting  powers  are 
to  act  in  concert,  and  agree  beforehand  in  respect  lo  the  time  of 
the  slaughter,  and  the  preservation  and  exposure  of  the  dead 
bodies.  What  a  tremendous  crisis  that  is  to  be,  when  all  evan- 
gelical teachers  and  confessors  who  faithfully  maintain  allegiance 
to  God  and  refuse  submission  to  the  usurping  powers  of  the  state, 
are  thus  lo  be  exterminated,  and  not  an  individual  left  openly  lo 
resist  the  wild  beast  and  false  prophet,  and  vindicate  the  rights 
of  God  !  What  an  exasperation  of  those  antichristian  powers  it 
bespeaks  !  What  a  determination  to  lest  the  truth  of  this  pro- 
phecy !  And  what  an  impious  defiance  of  the  Almighty  !  Their 
aim  in  the  preservation  and  exposure  of  the  bodies  of  the  wit- 
nesses, is  doubtless  to  be,  like  that  of  the  Jewish  priests  in  set- 
ting a  watch  at  the  sepulchre  of  Christ,  to  guard  against  a  false 
jiretence  of  their  resurrection.  They  may  think  by  placing  them 
where  the  multitude  may  daily  gaze  at  them,  to  render  the  ex- 
pectation of  their  resurrection  ridiculous  ;  and  to  make  the  spec- 
tacle the  more  effective,  may  prevent  them  from  dissolution  by 
the  methods  discovered  by  modern  chemists  by  w^hich  they  may 
be  preserved,  not  only  so  unaltered  as  to  be  identified,  but  as  lo 


OF  THE  WITNESSES.  299 

exhibit  the  pecuhar  expression  and  glow  of  the  recently  slain.* 
These  measures  most  clearly  indicate  that  this  prophecy  is  to 
be  understood  at  the  period,  and  the  expectation  entertained  and 
expressed  by  the  witnesses,  of  a  speedy  resurrection. 

The  three  days  and  a  half,  the  period  of  the  exposure  of  their 
bodies,  and  exultation  of  their  enemies,  like  the  twelve  hundred 
and  sixty  days,  are  to  be  interpreted  symbolically,  as  three  and  a 
half  years. 

Their  resurrection  is  an  additional  proof  that  their  death  is  to 
be  literal.  It  is  not  to  be  the  result  of  any  efforts  by  themselves. 
That  were  to  contradict  the  symbol.  It  is  not  to  spring  from  any 
agency  of  their  friends  who  would  have  buried  them,  nor  from  a 
political  revolution.  That  were  to  contradict  the  symbol  also.  The 
political  revolution,  moreover,  denoted  by  the  earthquake,  is  to  fol- 
low their  resurrection,  not  to  precede  it.  It  is  not  to  be  a  mere 
restoration  to  the  liberty  of  speech.  That  would  leave  the  sym- 
bol far  more  significant  than  that  which  it  represents.  Analogy 
also  requires  that  like  their  death,  it  should  be  interpreted  liter- 
ally. A  restoration  from  involuntary  silence  to  freedom  of  speech, 
has  no  similitude  to  a  restoration  from  decay  to  vitality,  from  in- 
sensibility to  consciousness  and  activity.  The  one  is  a  mere  re- 
moval of  restraint  from  powers  already  possessed,  the  other  a 
gift  of  new  powers  themselves  ;  the  one  a  mere  change  of  con- 
dition, the  other  a  creation.  Their  only  common  characteristic 
is  a  change,  but  that,  as  the  change  of  the  one  is  wholly  unlike 

^  He  who  hath  bent  him  o'er  the  dead, 
Ere  tlie  first  day  of  death  is  fled, 
The  first  dark  day  of  nothingness, 
The  last  of  danger  and  distress, 
Before  decay's  effacing  fingers 
Have  swept  tlie  hues  where  beauty  hngers, 
And  mark'd  the  mild,  angelic  air, 
The  rapture  of  repose  that's  there, 
The  fix'd  yet  tender  traits  that  streak, 
The  languor  of  the  pallid  cheek. 
And, — but  for  that  sad  shrouded  eye. 
That  fires  not,  wins  not,  weeps  not  now, 
And  but  for  that  chill,  changeless  brow. 
Where  cold  obstruction's  apathy 
Appals  the  gazing  mourner's  heart. 
As  if  to  him  it  could  impart 
The  doom  he  dreads,  yet  dwells  upon — 
Yes,  but  for  these,  and  these  alone, 
Some  moments,  aye,  one  treacherous  hour, 
He  still  might  doubt  the  tyrant's  power, 
So  fair,  so  calm,  so  softly  sealed, 
The  first,  last  look  by  death  revealed.  Guour. 


300  THE  SLAUGHTER  AND  RESURRECTION 

that  of  the  other,  constitutes  no  resemblance,  and  presents  no  me- 
dium by  which  the  one  can  be  made  the  representative  of  the 
other.  But  instead  of  springing  from  natural  causes,  their  resur- 
rection is  to  be  miraculous.  A  spirit  of  life  from  God  is  to  enter 
into  them,  and  they  are  to  stand  on  their  feet,  and  overwhelm 
those  with  fear  who  witness  the  spectacle. 

The  representation  that  they  heard  a  great  voice  from  heaven 
saying,  Ascend  here,  implies  either  that  it  is  to  be  lieard  by  them 
alone,  or  to  be  so  expressed  as  obviously  to  be  addressed  exclu- 
sively to  them.  If  it  is  to  be  audible  to  the  spectators  and  so  ex- 
pressed as  to  present  no  indication  that  it  is  exclusively  directed 
to  the  witnesses,  their  enemies  can  only  learn  by  a  process  of  rea- 
son, or  the  event,  that  it  is  not  also  addressed  to  them. 

The  cloud  in  which  they  are  to  ascend,  is  the  cloud  of  the  di- 
vine presence  doubtless,  from  which  the  voice  summoning  them 
to  heaven  is  to  proceed.  Their  assumption  to  heaven  is  to  be  a 
wholly  different  event  from  their  resurrection  ;  is  like  that  to  be, 
not  the  result  of  their  exertion  or  contrivance,  nor  the  work  of 
their  friends,  but  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  and  is  to  be  visible  to 
their  enemies  and  public.  They  are  to  ascend  in  the  cloud,  the 
chariot  of  the  Almighty  in  which  Elijah  was  rapt  to  heaven,  and 
become  thereby  invisible  to  men.  It  is  to  be  literal,  therefore. 
There  is  no  change  of  station  here  that  answers  to  these 
symbols.  As  a  visible  descent  from  the  atmosphere,  as  of 
an  angel,  denotes  a  sudden  and  conspicuous  entrance  on  an  im- 
portant agency  here,  so  a  visible  and  public  ascent  to  heaven,  in 
a  cloud,  can  denote  nothing  less  than  a  visible  and  public  depar- 
ture from  this  scene  to  the  invisible  world.  Nor  is  it  a  deviation 
from  the  requirements  of  analogy  that  the  symbol  is  in  this  in- 
stance of  the  same  species  as  that  which  it  is  employed  to  symbol- 
ize, inasmuch  as  no  change  of  which  men  are  here  the  subjects,  is 
in  any  degree  suited  to  represent  so  peculiar  and  august  an  event. 

Their  resurrection  and  assumption,  therefore,  are  to  be  a  pub- 
lic and  stupendous  testimony  of  God  to  their  truth  and  fidelity, 
and  refutation  of  the  usurpations  and  calumnies  of  their  persecu- 
tors ;  and  are  to  be  felt  to  be  such  ;  for  as  an  instant  consequence, 
there  is  to  be  a  great  earthquake,  by  which  a  tenth  of  the  city  is 
to  be  thrown  down  and  seven  thousand  men  of  name  killed.  A 
great  earthquake  denotes  a  sudden  and  violent  revolution  of  the 
opinions  and  feelings  of  a  people  in  respect  to  their  government, 
in  which  their  rulers  are  dejected  from  their  stations,  and  their  an- 
cient institutions  overthrown ;  as  a  violent  agitation  of  the  ground 
changes  the  attitude  of  every  thing  on  its  surface,  overturns  the 


OF   THE  WITNESSES.  301 

structures  of  art,  and  spreads  the  scene  with  confusion  and  ruin. 
The  tenth  of  the  city,  is  one  of  the  kingxlonis,  and  a  kingdom 
doubtless  from  which  many  of  the  witnesses  were  drawn,  and  in 
which  the  apostate  church  is  to  have  a  less  hold  than  in  others. 
It  is  probably,  therefore,  a  kingdom  which  had  been  largely  Pi-o- 
testant.  Its  apostate  hierarchy  will  necessarily  fall  with  the  civil 
government ;  that  is,  lose  its  position,  as  will  be  shown  in  explain- 
ing the  fall  of  Babylon,  chapter  xiv.  8,  as  a  national  establishment. 
The  slaughter,  by  the  earthquake,  of  seven  thousand  men  of 
name,  is  the  slaughter  doubtless  of  all  the  men  of  chief  station 
in  that  civil  government.  The  resurrection  and  assumption  of 
the  witnesses  then,  is  to  strike  the  spectators  with  an  irresistible 
conviction  that  they  are  true  worshippers  of  God  ;  that  the  civil 
rulers,  therefore,  who  persecuted  and  slew  them  are  his  enemies, 
and  guilty  of  an  impious  invasion  of  his  rights  in  assuming  au- 
thority over  his  laws  and  the  faith  and  worship  of  their  subjects. 
Under  the  impulse  of  that  conviction,  they  are  no  longer  to  sub- 
mit to  such  an  usurped  dominion  over  their  duties  and  their  con- 
sciences, but  are  to  hurl  from  their  stations  those  who  had  arro- 
gated it,  and  strike  from  existence  their  obnoxious  institutions 
and  laws.  And  this  change  of  convictions  and  feelings  is  to  ex- 
lend  equally  to  the  national  hierarchy,  the  creature  of  that  gov- 
ernment, which  sanctions  its  usurpation  of  the  rights  of  God  and 
slaughter  of  his  witnesses.  The  falsehood  of  its  pretences  to  ex- 
clusive authority  is  to  become  irresistibly  manifest.  Its  princi- 
ples, its  spirit,  and  its  agency,  like  those  of  its  parent  and  associ- 
ate, the  wild  beast,  are  to  be  seen  to  be  those  of  antichrist,  and  it 
is  instantly  to  sink  in  the  judgment  and  feeling  of  all  to  the  rank 
of  an  apostate  ;  its  dignitaries  are  to  be  slaughtered  along  with 
the  tyrannical  civil  rulers  ;  and  so  overwhelming  are  to  be  these 
demonstrations,  and  the  terror  they  are  to  inspire,  that  their  asso- 
ciates and  followers  who  survive  are  to  be  overawed,  and  give 
glory  to  God  by  the  confession  of  their  errors,  the  justification  of 
the  witnesses,  the  acknowledgment  of  the  exclusive  right  of  the 
Almighty  to  appoint  the  faith  and  homage  of  his  creatures,  and 
the  vindication  of  his  ways  in  delivering  his  servants  and  over- 
throwing his  enemies. 

What  an  august  verification  will  these  events  form  of  the  prom- 
ise to  the  witnesses  that  llieir  words  shall  prove  a  devouring  fire 
to  their  enemies  ;  that  God  will  grant  them  as  conspicuous  tokens 
of  his  approbation  as  he  gave  his  ancient  prophets,  and  make 
them  to  his  foes,  what  Moses  was  to  the  Egyptians,  and  Elijah  to 
the  apostate  Israelites  ! 


302  THE  SLAUGHTER  AND  RESURRECTION 

When  these  events  shall  have  taken  place,  the  second  woe  will 
have  passed,  and  the  period  approached  of  the  third. 

The  expositions  which  interpreters  have  given  of  this  passage 
are  very  various.  Most  regard  it  as  long  since  fulfilled,  and  in 
events  that  have  very  little  correspondence  with  the  symbol.  The 
attempts  of  Grotius,  Dr.  Hammond,  Eiclihorn,  and  Rosenmuller, 
to  find  its  counterpart  in  the  events  of  the  Jewish  war  under  Ves- 
pasian or  Hadrian,  are  marked,  like  their  construction  of  prece- 
ding symbols,  with  a  violation  not  only  of  all  likelihood,  but  of 
possibility.  Most  of  the  events  which  they  allege  as  fulfilments, 
were  not  only  many  centuries  earlier  than  the  second  woe,  and 
preceded  the  revelation  itself  a  considerable  period,  but  are  whol- 
ly against  analogy.  According  to  Eichhorn,  the  witnesses  were 
antichristian  high  priests,  not  believers,  and  the  earthquake  a 
slaughter,  not  a  political  revolution  ;  agents  and  events  which  those 
symbols  have  no  adaptation  to  represent. 

Mr.  Brightman's  theory  that  the  Scriptures  are  the  witnesses, 
and  the  decree  of  the  council  of  Trent  declaring  the  Vidgate 
translation  authoritative  in  preference  to  the  Greek  and  Hebrew 
originals,  their  slaughter,  is  also  against  analogy,  as  living  beings 
are  symbols  of  intelligent  agents  only,  never  of  inanimate  ob- 
jects. 

Mr.  Daubuz  expounds  the  finishing  of  their  testimony  by  the 
witnesses,  as  merely  their  testifying,  and  regards  it  as  denoting 
as  much  the  commencement  of  their  testimony  as  its  completion. 
Mr.  Mede,  Mr.  Cuningharae,  Mr.  Elliott,  and'  others,  also  inter- 
pret it  as  expressing  only  an  approach  towards  the  completion  of 
their  prophecy,  not  its  absolute  termination.  It  is  the  peculiar 
office,  however,  of  the  verb,  to  finish,  to  distinguish  the  comple- 
tion of  an  act  from  its  progress  or  commencement ,  as  it  is  the  of- 
fice of  the  verb,  to  begin,  to  express  its  commencement,  in  distinc- 
tion from  its  progress,  or  completion.  It  is  applied,  accordingly, 
like  that  verb,  to  periods  of  time,  as  well  as  to  physical  motions 
and  voluntary  agencies  ;  and  it  is  as  flagrant  a  violation  of  its 
meaning  to  represent  an  action  or  period  as  finished  before  it  has 
reached  its  end,  as  it  is  to  exhibit  a  period  or  agency  as  com- 
menced before  it  has  begun.  It  is  indeed  applied  to  the  several 
parts  of  complex  actions  as  they  are  successively  completed,  but 
only  in  the  sense  of  termination,  not  of  progress.  An  architect 
is  said  to  have  finished  the  foundations  of  a  building,  its  walls,  its 
entrances,  its  ornaments,  but  only  as  they  arc  severally  comple- 
ted. He  is  not  said  to  have  finished  the  structure,  till  all  its  parts 
are  absolutely  completed.     All  those  applications  of  the  symbol- 


OF  THE  WITNESSES.  303 

therefore,  which  assume  that  the  witnesses  were  slain,  before 
their  testimony  was  completed,  are  in  contradiction  to  the  mosi 
unequivocal  representations  of  the  passage. 

Those  writers  also  interpret  the  death  of  the  witnesses  a? 
merely  a  compulsory  silence,  on  the  ground  that  it  is  a  symbol 
It  is  not  however  a  departure  from  the  law  of  symbolization  that 
death  is  in  this  instance  used  as  a  representative  of  itself,  inas- 
mucii  as  there  is  no  condition  of  life  that  can  properly  symbohze 
it.  What  reason  can  be  given  that  the  souls  of  the  martyrs  of 
the  fifth  seal  symbolize  themselves,  except  that  other  beings  are 
inadequate  to  represent  them,  and  would,  if  employed,  lead  to 
misapprehension  ?  But  finally,  as  death  when  exhibited  as  an 
agent  and  a  destroyer,  as  under  the  fourth  seal,  symbolizes  de- 
stroyers of  spiritual  life,  so,  if  used  as  a  symbol  of  something  be- 
sides itself,  when  exhibited  as  an  effect,  it  must  undoubtedly  by 
the  same  law  of  analogy  represent  a  spiritual  death,  not  a  con- 
strained silence,  to  which  it  sustains  no  resemblance.  To  as- 
sume therefore  that  it  is  here  used,  like  an  ordinary  symbol,  as  the 
representative  of  an  event  of  some  different  but  resembling  spe- 
cies, involves  the  assumption  that  the  death  of  the  witnesses  is  a 
spiritual  death,  which  is  to  contradict  the  whole  representation 
of  the  passage. 

Mr.  Stuart,  assuming  that  symbols  have  no  meaning  but  such 
as  is  evolved  by  the  laws  of  philology,  maintains  that  the 
twelve  hundred  and  sixty  days  are  to  be  taken  as  denoting 
twelve  hundred  and  sixty  literal  days,  not  as  representatives  of 
twelve  hundred  and  sixty  larger  periods  ;  and  alleges  as  proot 
of  it,  that  designations  of  time  are  used  in  the  Scriptures  in  un- 
symbolic  prophecies  and  simple  historical  narratives,  to  denote 
the  periods  which  they  literally  express.  But  that  is  to  assume 
that  symbols  have  no  representative  significance,  and  is  to  take 
therefore  from  the  things  written  in  the  book  their  whole  pro- 
phetic meaning.  If  symbols  are  not  employed  as  representatives, 
what  is  their  office  ?  Why  are  they  used  ?  Why  are  two  of 
tJiose  of  the  first  vision  expounded  by  the  Son  of  God  himself 
as  representatives  of  agents  of  a  different  species  ;  a  star  of  the 
messenger  of  a  church  ;  a  candlestick  of  a  church  itself?  Why 
did  the  interpreting  angel  assign  a  re])resentative  meaning  to  the 
symbols  of  the  seventeenth  ciiapter  ?  And  finally,  if  able  to 
verify  his  assumption,  why  did  not  Mr.  Stuart,  as  his  rule  of  in- 
terpretation required,  show  that  agents,  like  the  seven-headed 
dragon,  the  ten-horned  wild  beast,  and  the  locusts  and  horse- 
men, appeared  in  the  scenes  in  Judea  to  which  he  refers  those 


304  THE  SLAUGHTER  AND  RESURRECTION 

symbols,   and  acted  there   the  parts  ascribed  to  them  in  the 
prophecy  ? 

The  assumption  that  to  finish  a  testimony  of  twelve  hundred 
and  sixty  days  is  simply  to  testify  during  those  days  as  they  suc- 
cessively pass,  led  Mr.  Daubuz  to  regard  the  three  and  a  half 
days  that  are  to  intervene  between  the  slaughter  and  resurrec- 
tion of  the  witnesses,  as  denoting  the  same  period  as  the  twelve 
hundred  and  sixty  days.  But  that  is  to  exhibit  them  as  dead 
through  the  whole  period,  and  represent  them  therefore  as  wholly 
precluded  from  uttering  a  testimony.  It  is,  moreover,  to  treat  the 
most  important  terms  of  the  prophecy  as  without  any  demon- 
strable meaning,  and  exhibit  all  attempts  at  its  solution  as  hope- 
less and  absurd.  What  better  reason  can  be  given  for  extending 
three  days  and  a  half  to  twelve  hundred  and  sixty,  than  for  re- 
ducing twelve  hundred  and  sixty  to  three  and  a  half  ? 

But  the  events  which  commentators  have  alleged  as  the 
slaughter  and  resurrection  of  the  witnesses,  have  as  little  coin- 
cidence with  the  conditions  of  the  symbol,  as  those  expositions 
of  its  subordinate  parts  have  with  the  laws  of  interpretation. 
They  are  represented  as  having  been  accomplished  in  the  perse- 
cution of  the  Waldenses  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  of  the 
Bohemians  in  the  fifteenth  ;  in  the  defeat  and  depression  of  the 
German  Protestants  in  their  war  with  Charles  V. ;  in  the  disper- 
sion and  return  of  the  Vaudois  in  the  seventeenth  century  ;  and 
in  the  persecution  of  the  French  Protestants  at  the  revocation  of 
the  edict  of  Nantes.  But  none  of  those  events  have  any  of  the 
requisite  correspondences  with  the  symbols.  They  were  all  an- 
terior to  the  close  of  the  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  days.  If  the 
death  be  interpreted  of  the  literal  slaughter  of  the  people  of  God, 
whether  as  martyrs  or  soldiers,  then  tliey  are  obviously  misap- 
plications, inasmuch  as  there  was  no  literal  resurrection  of  the 
slaughtered,  and  assumption  to  heaven  ;  as  there  must  be  if  the 
death  be  literal.  If  the  death  which  the  symbol  denotes  be  not 
literal,  but  symbolic,  then  those  alleged  fulfilments  are  as  ob- 
viously misapplications,  inasmuch  as  it  is  a  spiritual  death  that 
is  the  counterpart  of  a  literal,  not  a  constrained  silence,  as  they 
allege,  which  bears  to  it  no  analogy  whatever. 

The  Waldenses,  the  Bohemians,  the  German  Protestants,  the 
French  Protestants,  and  the  Vaudois,  attempted  to  defend  them- 
selves with  the  sword,  and  were  slain  chiefly  as  soldiers,  not  as 
martyrs.  It  was  eminently  so  with  the  German  Protestants. 
But  it  is  exhibited  as  the  characteristic  of  the  witnesses  that  they 
defend  themselves   only  by  that  which  proceeds   out  of  their 


OF  THE  WITNESSES.  305 

mouth — their  testimony  for  God.  Those  therefore  who  fell  of 
those  nations  on  the  battle-field,  fell  not  in  the  relation  of  wit- 
nesses, but  as  soldiers  simply  and  subjects  of  civil  rulers. 

They  who  fought  against  the  emperor  were  not  universally 
dissentients  from  the  apostate  church,  Maurice  himself,  the 
chief  author  of  their  final  victory,  though  professedly  a  Protest- 
ant, was  obviously  prompted  supremely,  as  was  Albert  of  Bran- 
denburg and  many  others,  doubtless,  by  political  motives  ;  while 
the  soldiers  on  the  side  of  the  Protestants  were  drawn  like  other 
armies  promiscuously  from  the  subjects  of  the  princes  who  uni- 
ted in  that  war,  without  consideration  wliether  they  were  Pro- 
testants or  Catholics.  They  cannot  in  any  sense,  therefore,  be 
regarded  universally  as  witnesses  for  God. 

There  was  nothing  in  either  of  those  alleged  accomplishments 
of  the  prophecy  that  answers  to  a  refusal  of  burial  to  the  slain, 
to  their  assumption  to  heaven,  to  a  great  earthquake  consequent 
on  that  assumption,  nor  to  the  fall  of  a  tenth  of  the  city.  The 
secession  of  England  from  the  dominion  of  the  pope,  which  is 
exhibited  by  Mr.  Cuninghame  and  Mr.  Elliott  as  the  fall  of  the 
city,  has  none  of  the  requisite  characteristics.  It  was  not  con- 
sequent on  the  recovery  by  the  German  Protestants  of  the  re- 
ligious liberty  lost  in  the  war  with  the  emperor,  but  preceded  it 
in  its  first  act  near  twenty  years. ^  It  was  not  consequent  on  a 
revolution  of  the  civil  government.  No  such  revolution  took 
place.  It  did  not  involve  a  fall  of  the  hierarchy  from  its  station 
as  nationalized.  That  hierarchy  did  not  by  that  secession  cease 
to  be  established,  nor  did  it  incur  by  it  the  reputation  of  an  apos- 
tate with  the  Protestants  of  the  other  nations. 

Nor  had  the  English  revolution  of  1688,  which  Mr.  Faber  re- 
gards as  denoted  by  the  earthquake  and  fall  of  a  tenth  of  the 
city,  any  of  the  requisite  characteristics.  That  revolution  took 
place  anterior  to  the  reconquest  of  their  valleys,  and  recovery  of 
their  ancient  privileges  by  the  Vallenses,  not  subsequently.  The 
earthquake  and  fall  of  the  city  are  represented  as  caused  by  the 
assumption  of  the  witnesses.  But  no  connection  whatever  sub- 
sisted between  the  reconquest  of  their  country  by  the  Vallenses 
and  the  English  revolution.  The  church  was  not  thrown  from 
its  station  as  nationalized  by  that  revolution,  but  instead  became 

'  Henry  VIII.  was  declared  head  of  the  English  church  in  1531  ;  the  paj-ment  of 
annates  prohibited  in  1532  ;  and  appeals  to  Rome  in  1533.  The  final  renunciation 
of  the  pope's  authority  took  place  March  20th,  1534.  Burnet's  Hist.  Reformation, 
book  ii.  The  Protestants  of  Germany  were  defeated,  and  the  Elector  of  Saxony 
taken  prisoner  April  2-4th,  1547.    Sleidani  Hist.  lib.  xix.  f.  307. 

39 


306  THE  SLAUGHTER  AND  RESURRECTION 

more  intimately  connected  with  the  government,  and  more  firmly 
established  as  a  civil  institution. 

Finally,  neither  of  those  events  was  followed  speedily  by  the 
temination  of  the  empire  of  the  Turks  over  the  regions  con- 
quered by  them  from  the  idolatrous  Christians,  nor  by  the 
seventh  trumpet.  Six  hundred  years  have  passed  since  the  cru- 
sade against  the  Waldenses  ;  four  hundred  and  more  since  the 
martyrdom  of  Huss  and  Jerome  and  the  war  on  the  Bohemians. 
Three  hundred  years  and  more  have  passed  since  the  secession 
of  England  ;  nearly  three  hundred  since  the  defeat  of  the  Protes- 
tant armies,  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  since  the  accession  of  Wil- 
liam and  Mary.  Yet  the  Turks  still  maintain  their  empire,  and 
are  still  a  woe.  The  supposition  that  they  ceased  to  be  such 
when  they  reached  the  limit  of  their  conquests,  and  began  to  de- 
cline, is  wholly  unauthorized.  It  implies  that  they  are  a  woe  to 
those  nations  only  whom  they  threaten,  but  do  not  conquer  ;  not 
to  those  whom  they  vanquish  and  rule  with  an  iron  rod  from  age 
to  age.  Though  after  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  they 
were  less  the  objects  of  fear  to  the  European  states,  they  yet 
continued  and  still  continue  no  less  a  scourge  to  the  vast  body  of 
nominal  Christians  under  their  dominion  in  Greece.  Asia  Minor, 
Syria,  Armenia,  Egypt,  and  the  isles  of  the  Mediterranean.  And 
their  empire  is  likely  still  to  subsist.  It  has  indeed  greatly  de- 
clined, yet  scarcely  more  than  Spain,  which  was  at  that  period 
the  most  powerful  of  the  ten  kingdoms,  and  which,  however  sunk 
to  decay,  is  doubtless  to  survive  to  the  seventh  trumpet.  Of  the 
long  space  from  the  Reformation,  the  first  hundred  and  fifty  years 
were  marked  by  as  frequent,  as  vast,  and  as  cruel  persecutions 
of  the  people  of  God,  as  any  former  period  for  many  ages.  The 
proportion  of  true  witnesses  to  the  apostate  church,  was  far 
greater  than  at  any  former  period,  and  the  soil  of  every  kingdom 
in  Europe  dyed  with  their  blood.  It  is  to  disregard  all  the 
characteristics  of  the  prophecy,  therefore,  to  exhibit  tlfose  re- 
mote and  wholly  dissimilar  events  as  its  fulfilment. 

It  is  to  contradict  the  representation  of  the  tenth  chapter 
also,  that  the  servants  of  God  should,  after  the  Reformation,  be 
again  called  to  witness  for  him  before  peoples  and  nations,  and 
tongues,  and  many  kings.  As  their  testimony  during  the  twelve 
hundred  and  sixty  days  is  to  be  finished  before  their  slaughter, 
if  their  slaughter  took  place  at  the  Reformation,  their  testimony 
must  have  been  finished  before  or  at  the  commencement  of  that 
event,  and  could  not  therefore  be  renewed  at  a  subsequent  pe- 
riod.    Indeed  what  treatment  of  the  sacred  word  can  be  mofe 


OF  THE  WITNESSES.  307 

unjustifiable  than  thus,  in  order  to  meet  the  exigences  of  a  theory, 
not  only  without  tlie  slightest  ground,  but  against  the  most  cer- 
tain and  essential  laws  of  language,  to  exhibit  it  as  representing 
the  witnesses  as  at  the  same  time  finishing  their  testimony,  and 
not  finishing  it ;  being  slaughtered,  and  not  being  slau.ghtered  ; 
being  refused,  and  not  refused  a  burial ;  being  raised  from  death, 
and  not  raised  ;  and  assumed  and  not  assumed  to  heaven  in  a 
cloud  ?  Were  it  not  equally  legitimate  to  represent  the  wild 
beast  at  the  same  period,  as  making  war  and  not  making  it ; 
the  city  as  fallen,  and  not  fallen ;  the  seven  thousand  men  of 
name  as  killed,  and  not  killed  ;  and  the  remnant  as  giving,  anei 
not  giving  glory  to  God  ?  If  the  same  terms  in  the  same  pas- 
sage may  thus  denote  precisely  opposite  events,  what  proof  can 
exist  that  opposite  and  contradictory  meanings  are  not  couched 
in  all  other  passages  ? — that  the  seventh  trumpet  may  not  at  the 
same  period  sound,  and  not  sound  ;  the  dead  rise,  and  not  rise  ; 
the  wild  beast  and  false  prophet  be  cast,  and  not  cast  into  a  lake 
of  fire  ?  Such  a  rule  of  construction  must  obviously  be  relin- 
quished, or  the  interpretation  of  the  prophecy  abandoned  as 
wholly  impracticable. 

On  the  other  hand,  these  erroneous  interpretations  verify  the 
representation  of  the  tenth  chapter,  that  the  Reformation  was  to 
be  misconstrued  as  the  final  victory  of  the  people  of  God  over 
their  enemies,  and  the  fall  of  the  apostate  church  and  destruction 
of  the  wild  beast.  Such  a  false  estimate  of  the  events  of  that 
period,  is  more  surprising  now,  than  when  they  were  passing. 
The  lapse  of  three  hundred  years  has  revealed  the  great  imper- 
fections of  that  work,  and  shown  the  fallacy  of  the  expectation 
then  entertained  of  its  spread  and  triumph  through  all  the  king- 
doms of  Europe.  A  large  share  of  the  nations  that  first  united 
in  it,  soon  returned  to  the  Catholic  cliurch.  No  accessions  have 
been  made  to  the  territory  of  Protestantism  in  Europe  during  the 
last  three  centuries  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  decline  of  the 
churches  that  still  survive  on  the  continent,  especially  in  faith  and 
piety,  is  portentous  in  the  extreme.  Sunk  during  the  last  sev- 
enty years  into  open  and  profligate  mfideliiy,  with  but  here  and 
there  an  exception,  they  are  now  as  conspicuously  apostate  as 
the  idolatrous  church  from  wdiich  they  seceded,  and  stand  in  as 
urgent  need  of  a  total  reformation  of  principle  and  manners.  Is 
it  credible  that  this  return  to  apostasy  is  the  act  of  the  witnesses 
who  ascended  into  heaven  in  a  cloud  ? 


308  THE  SEVENTH  TRUMPET, 


SECTION  XXVII. 

CHAPTER    XI.    15-19. 
THE     SEVENTH     TRUMPET. 

And  the  seventh  angel  sounded.  And  there  were  great  voices  in 
heaven  saying,  The  kingdom  of  the  world  is  become  our  Lord's  and 
his  Messiah's,  and  he  shall  reign  forever  and  ever.  And  the  twen- 
ty-four elders  v^ho  sat  before  God  on  their  thrones,  fell  on  their  faces, 
and  worshipped  God,  saying,  We  thank  thee,  0  Lord,  the  Almighty 
God,  who  is,  and  who  was,  that  thou  hast  assumed  thy  great  power, 
and  reigned.  And  the  nations  were  angry,  and  thy  wrath  is  come, 
and  the  time  of  the  dead  to  judge,  and  give  the  reward  to  thy  servants 
the  prophets,  and  the  holy,  and  those  who  fear  thy  name,  small  and 
great,  and  to  destroy  those  who  destroy  the  earth.  And  the  temple 
of  God  was  opened  in  heaven,  and  the  ark  of  his  covenant  was  seen 
in  his  temple.  And  there  were  lightnings,  and  voices,  and  thunders, 
and  an  earthquake,  and  great  hail. 

The  great  voices  from  heaven  are  undoubtedly  from  the  an- 
gelic hosts.  They  announce  that  llieir  Lord  and  his  Messiah 
has  entered  on  the  empire  of  the  world  as  its  king,  and  shall 
reign  forever  and  ever.  It  is  to  be  a  new  era,  therefore,  in  the 
government  of  the  earth  ;  the  commencement  by  Christ  of  a 
widely-different  and  an  eternal  administration  over  it  as  its  king. 
The  great  acts  that  are  to  mark  its  introduction  are  celebrated  by 
the  elders.  They  give  thanks  to  the  Self-existent,  the  Eternal, 
and  the  Almighty  ;  first,  that  he  has  exercised  his  supreme  right, 
and  reigned  as  a  sovereign  tiirough  the  long  period  from  the  cre- 
ation, during  which  the  nations  had  manifested  their  hostility  ; 
and  next,  that  the  time  is  come  in  which  he  is  to  display  his  dis 
pleasure  at  their  rebellion,  to  judge  and  give  reward  to  his  ser- 
vants, and  to  destroy  those  who  destroy  the  earth.  Their  thanks 
that  he  has  taken  his  great  power  and  reigned,  are  undoubtedly 
tiianks  that  he  has  exercised  such  an  administration  as  he  has 
tiirough  the  preceding  ages  of  the  world,  during  which  the  na- 
tions showed  their  aversion  to  his  dominion  ;  and  imply  a  sense 
therefore  of  its  rightfulness  and  its  wisdom  as  a  preparative  for 
the  everlasting  rule  of  grace  that  is  to  follow.  Their  thanks  that 
his  wrath  is  come,  and  the  lime  to  destroy  the  destroyers  of  the 
earth,  are  thanks  that  the  apostate  and  idolatrous  powers  that 
have  usurped  the  dominion  of  the  earth,  and  warred  against  his 


THE  SEVENTH  TRUMPET.  309 

worshippers,  are  now  to  be  overthrown,  and  expelh^d  from  the 
scene  ;  and  then'  thanks  that  the  time  of  the  dead  is  come,  to 
judge,  and  give  reward  to  his  servants,  the  prophets,  and  to  the 
holy,  and  to  those  who  fear  his  name,  small  and  great,  are  thanks 
that  the  holy  dead,  whether  prophets  or  others,  are  now  to  be 
raised  from  the  grave,  freed  in  full  from  the  penalty  of  sin,  and 
publicly  adopted  as  heirs  of  his  kingdom  ;  and  that  the  living 
who  fear  his  name,  small  as  well  as  great,  are  to  be  placed  un- 
der a  new  administration,  and  receive  the  gift  of  iiniuortality 
promised  to  those  who  are  living  at  his  advent.  The  opening  of 
the  inner  temple,  and  exhibition  of  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  de- 
note probably  that  the  mysteries  of  his  former  administration  are 
finished  ;  that  thenceforth  the  reasons  of  his  procedure  are  to  be 
understood,  and  especially  that  he  is  to  reign  visibly  to  his  people 
on  earth,  whom  the  prophet  represented,  complete  the  redemp- 
tion of  his  sanctified,  and  exalt  them  to  more  intimate  relations 
to  himself. 

The  lightnings,  voices,  thunders,  earthquake,  and  hail,  that  fol- 
lowed, were  on  the  earth,  and  denote  excitements,  commotions, 
and  revolutions  among  the  nations,  and  the  descent  on  them  of 
destroying  judgments. 

The  seventh  trumpet  is  to  be  followed  then  by  three  most  mo- 
mentous events  ;  the  assumption  by  the  Redeemer  of  the  do- 
minion of  the  earth  in  a  new  and  peculiar  relation  as  its  king,  and 
commencement  of  a  visible  and  eternal  reign  ;  the  resurrection 
from  their  graves  of  all  those  of  his  saints  who  have  suffered  the 
penalty  of  death,  and  public  adoption  as  the  heirs  of  his  kingdom, 
and  the  acceptance  of  all  the  living  who  fear  him,  and  reward  by 
the  peculiar  blessings  which  are  to  distinguish  his  reign  on  the 
earth  ;  and  finally,  the  destruction  of  the  apostate  powers,  the 
wild  beast,  false  prophet,  and  their  supporters,  who  have  so  long 
arrogated  his  right  of  dominion  and  usurped  his  empire.  That 
trumpet  is  to  be  cotemporaneous  therefore  doubtless  with  the 
seventh  vial,  which  is  to  be  followed  also  by  lightnings,  and 
voices,  and  thunders,  a  great  earthquake,  and  much  hail ;  and 
with  the  closing  events  also  symbolized  under  the  sixth  seal. 

The  assumption  of  the  dominion  of  the  earth  by  the  Redeem 
er,  which  is  then  to  take  place,  is  that  which  was  beheld  by  Dan 
iel  in  night  visions,  when  one  like  a  son  of  man  came  with  the 
clouds  of  heaven,  and  came  to  the  Ancient  of  days,  and  they 
brought  him  before  him,  and  there  was  given  him  dominion  and 
glory,  and  a  kingdom,  that  all  people,  nations,  and  languages 
should  serve  him.     His  dominion   is  an  everlasting  dominion 


310  THE   SEVENTH  TRUxMPET. 

which  shall  not  pass  away,  and  his  kingdom  that  which  shall  not 
be  destroyed.^  What  space  these  great  actions  and  catastrophes 
are  to  occupy,  is  not  indicated.  Probably  from  their  nature  and 
tlie  representations  in  subsequent  visions,  a  considerable  period. 

Grotius  and  Dr.  Hammond  interpret  the  symbols  of  this  trum- 
pet of  the  toleration  and  prosperity  of  Christians  in  Judea,  after 
the  suppression  of  the  Jewish  insurrections  by  Hadrian  ;  Eich- 
horn,  of  the  triumph  of  Christianity  over  Judaism  at  the  subver- 
sion of  Jerusalem  by  Titus  ;  Mr.  Brightman,  of  the  prosperity 
of  the  Protestant  church  in  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury ;  but  those  periods  present  no  resemblances  whatever  to  the 
prophecy.  There  was  then  no  commencement  of  a  new  and  tri- 
umphant reign  of  the  Redeemer  over  the  earth  ;  there  was  no 
destruction  of  the  antichristian  powers  that  had  usurped  his 
right  of  dominion  and  persecuted  his  people  ;  there  was  no  uni- 
versal agitation  among  the  nations,  and  overthrow  of  their  gov- 
ernments ;  there  was  no  public  reward  of  the  holy  dead  of  all 
preceding  generations  by  a  resurrection  in  glory,  and  adoption  as 
heirs  of  God,  and  joint  heirs  with  Christ.  That  they  are  to  be 
raised  at  the  seventh  trumpet,  is  shown  by  the  representation  that 
God  is  then  to  vindicate  them,  and  give  them  their  reward.  Their 
vindication  will  involve  their  public  forgiveness  through  the  mer- 
its of  Christ,  their  release  from  all  the  penalties  of  sin,  and  adop- 
tion as  his  sons.  It  will  involve  therefore  a  resurrection  from 
death,  which  is  the  most  conspicuous  penalty  of  sin,  and  the  only 
one  that  will  retain  dominion  over  them  till  that  period.  Their 
resurrection,  indeed,  is  to  constitute  their  adoption  as  sons  of 
God,  Rom.  viii.  23.  That  restoration  of  their  bodies  from  t!ie 
dishonors  of  death  and  exaltation  to  immortality  and  glory,  is  to 
form  a  conspicuous  and  majestic  demonstration  to  the  universe 
of  their  full  forgiveness  and  acceptance  as  children,  as  Christ 
was  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power  by  his  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead.  They  are  to  be  rewarded  also  by  elevation 
to  the  station  of  kings  and  priests  in  his  presence,  and  a  share 
in  the  glories  and  beatitude  of  his  everlasting  reign.  That  tliose 
great  events  are  to  take  place  at  the  seventh  trumpet  is  shown, 
moreover,  expressly  in  Matthew  xxiv.  31,1  Corinthians  xv.  52, 
and  1  Thessalonians  iv.  16. 

Some  commentators  have  regarded  the  judgment  of  the  dead 
which  is  to  follow  the  seventh  trumpet,  as  a  judgment  of  the  evil 
as  well  as  the  good.     There  is  no  reference  however  in  the  pas- 
sage to  any  except  the  servants  of  God,  and  it  is  expressly  rep 
'  Daniel,  chap.  vii. 


THE  SEVENTH  TRUMPET,  311 

resented  in  chapter  xx.  4-6,  and  in  1  Corinth,  xv.  22-25,  that  the 
dead  in  Christ  are  to  rise  first. 

Mr.  Whiston  and  Mr.  Cuninghame  regard  the  period  of  the 
seventh  irumpet  as  (imbracing  the  seven  vials,  and  chiefly  on  the 
ground  that  the  temple  of  God  is  said  to  be  opened  before  the  ef- 
fusion of  the  first  vial,  as  well  as  at  the  sound  of  that  trumpet. 
But  the  opening  of  the  temple  before  the  effusion  of  the  vials, 
was  in  order  that  the  apostle  and  the  harpers  on  the  glassy  sea 
might  witness  the  delivery  of  the  vials  to  the  angels,  and  their 
procedure  from  the  divine  presence. 

It  is  also  thought  to  be  a  proof  that  the  vials  are  cotemporane- 
ous  with  that  trumpet,  that  they  are  denominated  the  last  seven 
plagues.  That  they  are  the  last  seven  plagues,  however,  is  no 
proof  that  the  first  six  do  not  precede  the  last  trumpet. 

But  if,  as  Mr.  Cuninghame  deems,  the  first  vials  have  already 
been  poured,  the  error  of  his  assumption  is  indisputable,  inas- 
much as  the  second  woe  has  not  yet  reached  its  termination,  nor 
have  the  slaughter  and  resurrection  of  the  witnesses  taken  place, 
which  are  to  precede  the  seventh  trumpet.  No  fact  can  be  more 
certain  and  obvious  than  that  the  empire  of  the  Turks  still  sur- 
vives, maintains  its  dominion  over  the  territories  conquered  from 
the  idolatrous  church,  and  continues  to  be  an  antichristian  and 
persecuting  power.  On  what  ground  can  it  be  assumed  that  their 
sway  over  those  vast  territories  ceased  to  be  a  woe,  the  moment 
they  ceased  to  extend  their  conquests  ?  Did  it  cease  to  be  a  tre- 
mendous token  of  the  wrath  of  the  Almighty  at  the  idolatries  of 
the  ancient  churches  which  it  was  appointed  to  rebuke  and  chas- 
tise ?  Did  it  cease  to  be  an  unspeakable  calamity  to  the  church- 
es which  survived  in  Greece,  Asia  Minor,  Armenia,  Syria,  and 
Egypt,  and  which  still  survive,  notwithstanding  the  debasing  ex- 
amples, the  cruel  oppressions,  and  the  frequent  slaughters  of  the 
last  hundred  and  fifty  years  ?  Nor,  independent  of  the  continuance 
of  that  woe,  can  any  truth  be  more  indisputable,  from  the  laws 
of  symbolization,  than  that  no  such  events  have  taken  place  as 
are  denoted  by  the  slaughter  of  the  witnesses,  the  refusal  to  them 
of  a  burial,  their  resurrection  and  assumption  to  heaven,  an  earth- 
quake and  fall  of  a  tenth  of  the  great  city  consequent  on  that  as- 
sumption, a  slaughter  of  seven  thousand  men  of  name,  and  an 
acknowledgment  by  the  survivors  of  the  guilt  of  tlie  persecutors, 
and  the  righteousness  of  God  in  the  great  acts  by  which  he  vin- 
dicates his  servants  and  destroys  their  enemies.  To  admit  that 
any  of  the  events  which  are  alleged  as  such,  are  the  counterpart 
of  those  symbols,  were  to  assume  that  the  symbols  are  in  the  ut- 


312  THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON. 

most  degree  self-contradictory,  and  without  any  determinable 
meaning,  and  involve  the  interpretation  of  the  whole  book  in  to- 
tal uncertainty.  We  are  required,  therefore,  by  the  most  imper- 
ative necessity,  to  regard  the  seventh  trumpet  as  still  future,  and 
probably  at  a  considerable  distance,  and  may,  without  any  incon- 
sistency with  this  or  any  other  passage,  assume  that  the  first  six 
vials  precede  it,  and  are  already  poured  and  pouring.  The  events 
of  the  French  revolution  and  the  wars  that  followed  in  its  train, 
were  indeed  tremendous,  and  present  a  conspicuous  counterpart 
to  the  symbols  of  the  first  five  vials.  Yet  they  were  not  destruc- 
tive either  of  the  wild  beast  or  false  prophet.  So  far  from  it,  the 
usurpation  by  the  governments,  of  dominion  over  the  obligations 
and  consciences  of  their  subjects,  the  idolatry  of  the  church,  and 
the  profligacy  of  the  people,  remain  essentially  as  they  were, 
while  a  restless  and  aspiring  spirit  is  generated  in  the  lower  class- 
es, Avhich  seems  preparative  to  a  universal  revolution,  whose  hor- 
rors shall  far  transcend  any  that  precede  it,  and — consummated  by 
the  interposition  of  the  Son  of  God  to  complete  the  destruction 
of  his  foes — entitle  it  exclusively  to  the  designation  of  the  third 
woe. 


SECTION  XXVIII. 
CHAPTER   XII.    1-6. 

THE    WOMAN     AND     DRAGON. 


And  a  great  sign  was  seen  in  heaven  ;  a  woman  clothed  with  the 
sun,  and  the  moon  under  her  feet,  and  on  her  head  a  crown  of  twelve 
stars.  And  being  with  child,  she  cries,  in  the  pangs  of  birth  and  in 
labor,  to  deliver. 

And  another  sign  was  seen  in  heaven  ;  and  behold  a  great  red 
drao-on,  having  seven  heads  and  ten  horns,  and  on  its  heads  seven 
diadems.  And  its  tail  drew  the  third  of  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  cast 
them  to  the  earth.  And  the  dragon  stood  before  the  woman  who  was 
about  to  bear,  that  when  she  should  bring  forth,  it  might  devour  her 
child.  And  she  brought  forth  a  male  child,  who  is  to  rule  all  nations 
with  an  iron  sceptre.  And  her  child  was  caught  up  to  God  and  to 
his  throne. 

And  the  woman  fled  into  the  desert,  where  she  has  a  place  pre 
pared  by  God,  that  there  they  may  nourish  her  a  thousand  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty  days. 


THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON.  313 

The  woman  is  the  representative  of  the  true  people  of  God, 
obviously,  from  the  persecution  she  endures  from  the  dragon,  and 
her  flight  into  the  desert,  and  subsistence  there  through  the  pe- 
riod during  which  the  witnesses  prophesy.  Her  sunbeam  robe, 
her  station  above  the  moon,  and  her  crown  of  stars,  bespeak  her 
greatness,  conspicuousness,  and  majesty  ;  as  the  effulgent  counte- 
nance, the  cloudy  robe,  and  iris  splendors  of  the  angel  of  the  Ref- 
ormation, indicate  the  conspicuity,  grandeur,  and  power  of  those 
whom  he  represents.  Her  cry  and  labor  to  bear,  denote  the  im- 
portunate desire  and  endeavor  of  those  whom  she  symbolizes,  to 
present  to  the  empire  one  who  should  as  their  son,  rise  to  su- 
preme power,  and  rule  the  nations  with  an  iron  sceptre,  repress- 
ing the  pagans  from  persecution,  and  giving  the  church  toleration 
and  peace. 

The  great  red  dragon  symbolizes  the  rulers  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire ;  the  seven  heads  denoting  the  seven  species  of  the  chiefs  of 
its  ancient  government ;  the  ten  horns  the  chiefs  of  the  kingdoms 
into  which  its  western  half  was  divided  on  its  conquest  by  the 
Goths.  It  is  the  symbol  of  the  Roman,  not  any  earlier  or  later 
empire,  obviously,  both  from  its  correspondence  with  that  which 
was  employed  in  the  visions  of  Daniel,  chapter  vii.  20-24,  to 
represent  the  rulers  of  the  fourth  great  kingdom,  wiiich  was  in- 
disputably the  Roman,  the  conqueror  and  successor  of  the  Mace- 
donian ;  and  from  the  fact  that  that  is  the  only  empire  that  ac- 
cords in  any  degree  with  the  symbol.  It  is  the  representative  of 
the  rulers  of  the  Roman  empire,  not  of  the  empire  itself  or  its 
population,  manifestly  from  the  exhibition  on  the  one  hand,  chap, 
xiii.  3,  4,  of  the  whole  earth,  the  symbol  of  that  population  in 
subjection  to  its  rulers,  as  admiring  and  worshipping  the  wild 
beast,  the  dragon's  successor ;  and  of  the  dragon,  on  the  other,  as 
surrendering  to  that  wild  beast  on  the  triumph  of  the  Goths,  its 
throne  and  dominion  over  the  western  half  of  its  territory.  A 
throne,  great  power  and  authority,  are  peculiarities  of  rulers,  not 
of  subjects.  Its  sweeping  its  tail  through  the  sky,  dragging  one 
third  of  the  stars,  and  casting  them  to  the  earth,  represents  its 
violent  dejection  of  one  third  of  the  Christian  teachers  from  their 
stations  by  imprisonment,  condemnation  to  the  mines,  disqualifica- 
tion for  their  office  by  depriving  them  of  their  eyes,  or  martyr- 
dom. Its  station  before  the  woman,  and  purpose  as  soon  as  she 
should  bring  forth,  to  devour  her  offspring,  indicate  their  appre- 
hension that  the  people  of  God  were  about  to  favor  the  elevation 
to  the  throne  of  a  Christian  prince,  and  design,  should  they  pat- 
ronize a  candidate  for  the  supreme  rule,  witii  the  expectation  that 

40 


314  THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON. 

he  would  restrain  their  pagan  persecutors,  and  give  ihem  tolera- 
tion, to  destroy  the  object  of  their  favor.  Her  bearing  a  male 
child  who  was  about  to  rule  the  nations  with  an  iron  sceptre,  de- 
notes that  they  assumed  that  relation  towards  one  who  was  a  can- 
didate for  the  imperial  throne,  and  destined  at  length  to  ascend 
it,  and  become  the  first  of  a  succession  of  princes  who  should 
repress  their  pagan  persecutors  with  an  iron  sway.  That  her  son 
was  suddenly  caught  up  to  God  and  to  his  throne,  denotes  both 
that  he  was  rescued  in  an  extraordinary  manner  from  the  attempts 
of  the  pagan  emperors  to  destroy  him,  and  exalted  to  supreme 
power  in  tlie  empire  ;  and  that  he  became  in  that  station  a  usurp- 
er of  the  rights  of  God,  and  an  object  of  idolatrous  homage  to  his 
subjects.  That  the  woman  fled  into  the  desert,  signifies  that  the 
people  of  God,  wholly  disappointed  in  their  expectation  of  a 
more  favorable  rule  from  monarchs  professing  to  be  Christian, 
and  exposed  to  greater  evils  than  they  had  suffered  from  tlieir 
pagan  persecutors,  were  compelled,  in  order  to  safety,  to  retire 
from  the  nationalized  church  into  seclusion.  That  she  was  to  be 
nourished  there  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  days,  denotes  that  they 
were  to  continue  in  seclusion,  upheld  by  the  special  care  of  God, 
through  a  period  of  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years.  As  the  wo- 
man is  the  representative  of  a  multitude,  and  succession  of  be- 
lievers, so  the  man-child  is  the  representative  of  a  dynasty  or  suc- 
cession cf  princes. 

That  the  actors  and  agencies  represented  in  this  vision  are  not 
subsequent  to  the  seventh  trumpet,  is  obvious  from  the  symbols. 
That  trumpet  is  the  signal  of  the  overthrow  cf  the  Roman  em- 
pire in  its  last  form,  the  final  deliverance  of  the  people  of  God 
from  their  persecuting  enemies,  and  from  death  itself,  and  estab- 
lishment in  an  everlasting  kingdom  under  Christ  as  their  king. 
But  this  symbol  exhibits  the  government  of  that  empire  in  its 
power,  and  at  a  period  many  ages  anterior  to  the  deliverance  of 
the  people  of  God,  as  the  flight  of  the  woman  into  the  desert, 
where  she  is  to  subsist  through  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years, 
denotes  ;  and  anterior  also  to  the  fall  of  the  western  empire  and 
conversion  into  ten  kingdoms,  as  the  diadems  on  the  dragon's 
heads,  the  badge  of  tlie  imperial  rule,  indicate. 

In  what  period,  then,  during  the  continuance  of  the  imperial 
rule,  shall  we  find  all  these  conditions  united  ;  a  persecution  du- 
ring which  great  numbers  of  the  teachers  of  the  church  were 
dejected  from  their  stations  ;  a  veiiement  desire  of  the  people  of 
God  that  some  one  should  be  raised  up  whom  they  might  patron- 
ize, and  aid  in  ascending  the  throne,  in  expectation  that  he  would 


THE   WOMAN  AND  DRAGON.  315 

reign  as  a  friend  and  professor  of  Christianity,  repress  their  per- 
secutors, and  give  them  Ireedom  and  security  ;  an  alarm  of  the 
chiefs  of  the  empire  at  that  wish,  and  determination  to  crush  the 
candidate  for  supreme  power,  who  sliould  become  the  object  of 
such  an  expectation  ;  tiie  rise  of  an  heir  to  tiie  throne  towards 
whom  the  people  of  God  assumed  that  relation,  and  whom  the 
chiefs  of  the  empire  endeavored  to  destroy  ;  his  sudden  and  ex 
traordinary  extrication  from  their  power,  and  elevation  to  a  sta- 
tion beyond  their  reach  ;  his  usurpation  of  the  divine  rights,  and 
becoming  an  object  of  idolatrous  homage  ;  his  disappointment 
of  the  hope  of  the  people  of  God  of  a  rule  favorable  to  their 
purity  and  peace  ;  and  their  retreat  in  consequence  into  seclu 
sion,  and  continuance  in  obscurity  through  a  long  succession  of 
ages  ? 

All  these  conditions  meet  most  conspicuously  in  the  period  of 
Constantine  and  his  successors. 

I.  The  imperial  rule  still  subsisted,  and  continued  a  hundred 
and  seventy  years  after  his  accession  to  the  throne.  He  was 
proclaimed  Augustus  by  the  western  army  on  the  death  of  his 
father,  July  25lh,  306  ;^  the  subversion  of  the  western  empire 
by  the  conquest  of  Augustulus,  took  place  in  476.^ 

II.  The  diadem  was  introduced  by  Diocletian,  as  the  imperial 
badge,  continued  to  be  worn  till  the  fall  of  the  western  throne, 
and  was  adopted  by  the  Gothic  kings  who  succeeded  to  the 
western  empire.^ 

III.  The  period  of  Constantine's  accession  was  a  period  of 
persecution,  during  which  great  numbers  of  the  Christian  teach- 
ers were  struck  from  their  stations,  as  the  stars  were  swept  by 
the  dragon  from  the  sky,  and  consigned  to  prisons,  to  the  mines, 
and  to  martyrdom,  or  disqualified  by  mutilation  for  the  exercise 
of  their  office.  It  was  commenced  by  Uioclelian  on  the  23d  of 
February,  303,  and  before  the  close  of  the  year  was  by  a  new 
edict  directed  chiefly  against  those  who  presided  in  the  churches. 
The  prisons  being  soon  filled  with  bishops,  presbyters,  deacons, 
and  readers,  another  edict  followed  enjoining  that  such  of  them 
as  could  be  induced  to  sacrifice  to  the  gods  should  be  set  at  lib- 
erty, but  that  such  as  refused,  should  be  put  to  the  severest  tor- 
ture.'*     By  a  fourth  edict  in  305,  all  without  distinction  through- 

'  Lactantii  de  Mort.  Persecut.  c.  xxiv.  xxv.     Pagi  Crit.  in  Baron,  an.  306,  no.  6- 
10.     Gibbon's  Hist.  Decl.  and  Fail,  cliap.  xiv. 
■■^  Pagi  Crit.  in  Baron,  an.  476,  no.  2,  3.     Gibbon's  Hist.,  chap,  xxxvi. 
°  Gibbon's  Hist,  cliap.  xiii. 
*  Qutc  autein  per  totuin  orbcm  singuii  gesserint,  cnarraro  impossibilo  est.     Quis 


316  THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON. 

out  the  empire  were  required  to  offer  sacrifice  to  idols,  the 
magistrates  were  enjoined  to  contrive  severer  torments  to  con- 
strain the  reluctant,  and  the  incorrigible  were  consigned  without 
reserve  to  the  wild  beasts,  the  sword,  or  the  flames.^  The  num- 
ber who  suffered  under  these  edicts  in  Mauritania,  Upper  and 
Lower  Egypt,  Syria,  Asia  Minor,  Thrace,  and  Italy,  is  represent- 
ed as  immense.^ 

IV.  The  people  of  God  were  led  by  the  toleration  granted  by 
Constantius  Chlorus  to  the  Christians  in  his  dominions,  and  the 
persuasion  that  his  family  were  favorable  to  Christianity,  to  the 
desire  and  hope  that  his  son  Constantino  might  be  elevated  to  the 
imperial  rank,  in  the  expectation  that  under  his  sway  the  pagan 
party  would  be  prohibited  from  persecuting,  and  restrained  from 
the  extreme  indecencies  of  their  worship. 

Constantius  Chlorus  who  held  the  rank  of  Caesar,  and  had 
command  of  Britain,  Spain,  and  Gaul,  at  the  promulgation  of 
the  first  edict,  and  became  Augustus  on  the  abdication  of  Dio- 
cletian, yielded  to  the  wishes  of  the  persecuting  emperors  only 
so  far  as  to  demolish  the  houses  of  worship.  No  Christians  were 
put  to  death,  or  imprisoned  in  France,  or,  so  far  as  is  known,  in 
Britain.  "  The  emperor  Constantius  Chlorus  was  distinguished 
through  his  whole  life  for  mildness  and  clemency  towards  those 
under  his  rule,  and  friendliness  to  Christianity.  He  took  no  share 
in  the  war  waged  against  the  church,  but  protected  the  pious  who 
lived  under  his  jurisdiction  from  molestation,  neither  destroying 
their  edifices  for  worship,  nor  intermeddling  with  them  in  any 
respect.  And  he  alone,  after  a  peaceful  and  glorious  reign,  left 
his  empire  at  death  to  a  legitimate,  a  modest,  and  a  religious  son. 
On  his  demise,  Constantino,  who  had  long  before  been  assigned 
to  that  office  by  the  Almighty,  was  inmiediately  saluted  Augus- 
tus by  the  army,  and  became  a  zealous  emulator  of  his  father's 
veneration  for  the  Christian  religion."-'  The  exemption  of  the 
churches  of  Gaul,  Britain,  and  probably  in  a  degree  those  of 

enim  volumiiium  numenis  capiet  tarn  infiuita,  tarn  varia  treuera  crndelitatis  ?  Accepta 
euim  poteslate,  pro  suis  inoribus  quisque  siBvivit. — Lactantii  last.  lib.  v.  do  Just.  c. 
11.     Mosliemii  de  Rebus  ante  Const,  pp.  929-934. 

'  Eusebii  de  Mart.  Falsest,  c.  iii.     Lactant.  de  Mort.  Persecut.  c.  xv.  xvi. 

"  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  viii.  c.  6.  De  Martyr.  Palojst.  p.  260,  c.  ii.  p.  2G2. 
Moshemii  de  Rebus  ante  Const,  pp.  928-947. 

*  Eusebii  Hist  Eccl.  lib.  viii.  c.  13,  18.  Lactantius  represents  Constantius 
Chlorus  as  yielding  so  far  to  the  wishes  of  Diocletian  and  Galerius,  as  to  order  the 
demolition  of  the  houses  of  worship.  Nam  Constantius  ne  dissentire  a  majorum 
praeceptis  videretur,  conventicula,  id  est,  parietes,  qui  restitui  poterant,  dirui  passus 
est,  verum  autem  Dei  templum  quod  est  in  hominibus,  incolunie  seiTavit. — De 
Mort.  Persecut.  c.  xv. 


THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON,  317 

Spain  also,  from  the  violence  with  which  ihey  were  wasted  in 
all  the  other  provinces,  through  nearly  three  years  and  a  half, 
from  the  commencement  of  the  persecution  to  the  death  of  Con- 
stantius  Chlorus,  sufficiently  demonstrated  to  the  whole  empire 
the  tolerant  disposition  of  his  family,  and  naturally  gave  birth  to 
a  general  wish  that  his  sceptre  might  descend  to  his  son  ;  and 
the  continuance  of  that  tolerant  pohcy  by  Constantine  through 
the  six  years  that  followed,  gave  the  most  ample  assurance  of 
favor  under  his  sway,  and  raised  a  universal  and  intense  desire 
that  he  might  be  advanced  to  supreme  power,  and  extend  his 
protection  to  the  whole  church.^  This  confidence  in  him  is  in- 
dicated in  the  letter  addj-essed  to  him  in  the  year  313  by  several 
of  the  Donatist  bishops  of  Africa,  desiring  him  to  appoint  bish- 
ops of  the  Gallic  church  to  settle  their  difficulties.  "  Good 
emperor,  as  you  are  of  a  just  family,  of  all  the  emperors  your 
father  alone  having  never  persecuted,  and  as  Gaul  is  now  ex- 
empted from  that  outrage,  we  ask  you  in  your  piety  to  appoint 
bishops  from  that  province  who  may  judge  between  us  and  the 
other  bishops  of  Africa,  with  whom  we  are  at  variance."^ 

V.  This  desire  of  his  elevation  is  indicated  by  the  prayers  of- 
fered by  the  church.  "  The  Lord  has  heard  the  prayers  which 
were  offered  continually  by  you  and  the  other  brethren,  who  by 
a  glorious  confession  sought  an  eternal  crown.  Behold  the  per- 
secutor himself  has  joined  in  them  f  and  tranquillity  being  re- 
stored through  the  empire,  the  church  lately  prostrate  has  again 
risen,  and  the  temples  of  God  which  the  emperor  had  overturned, 
are  by  his  mercy  re-erected  in  greater  beauty  than  before.  For 
he  has  raised  up  princes*  who  have  put  an  end  to  the  cruel  sway 

*  Eusebius  relates  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  other  parts  of  the  empire  on  learn- 
ing the  character  of  his  reign,  at  the  west,  pronounced  those  happy  that  hved  under 
his  rule,  and  prayed  that  they  also  might  at  length  enjoy  the  same  blessings. — De 
Vita  Const,  lib.  ii.  c.  22.  Lactantius  also  represents  tlie  people  and  army  univer- 
sally as  desiring  his  elevation. — De  Mort.  Persecut.  c.  xix. 

'■'  Rogamus  te  Constantine  optime  imperator,  quoniam  de  genere  justo  es  cujus 
paler  inter  cceteros  imperatores  persecutionem  nou  exercuit  et  ab  hoc  facinore  im- 
rnunis  est  Gallia ;  nam  in  Africa  inter  nos  et  caeteros  episcopos  contentiones  sunt, 
])etimiis  ut  de  Gallia  nobis  jiulices  dari  praecipiat  pietas  tiia.  Datse  k  Luciano,  Digno, 
et  cffiteris  episcopis  partis  Donati. — Optati  de  Schis.  Donat.  lib.  i.  p.  22.  Labbei 
Concil.  torn.  ii.  p.  436. 

In  the  acts  of  the  council  represented  by  Isidore  to  have  been  held  at  Rome  soon 
after  that  of  NiciBa,  Constantine  is  denominated  a  son  of  the  church.  Mater  ec- 
clesia  genuerat  filium  Constantinum  carissimum. — Labbei  Concil.  torn.  ii.  p.  619. 

^  Alluding  to  the  edict  of  GaJerins  in  311,  in  which  he  prohibited  the  further  per- 
secutiou  of  the  Christians,  aiid  sohcited  their  prayers  for  his  safety. — Lactaut.  de 
Mort.  PejBecut.  c.  xxxiv. 

■*  Constantino  and  Licinius,  who  in  313  united  in  an  edict  giving  toleration  to  tho 
church. 


318  THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON. 

of  the  t3Tants,  and  given  protection  to  the  people,  so  that  ah'eady, 
as  though  the  late  clouds  were  dispersed,  all  are  gladdened  M'ilh 
peace  and  serenity.  Those  tempests  have  passed  away,  the  air 
has  become  calm,  and  the  light  shines,  without  obstruction.  God 
in  his  pity  has  relieved  his  afflicted  servants,  and  wiped  away 
the  tears  of  the  mourners."^ 

Sozomen  represents  the  church  as  praying,  at  the  period  of 
the  conflict  with  Licinius,  that  Constantine  might  become  sole 
monarch  of  the  empire,  and  exerting  its  influence  in  his  favor. 
"  Licinius  on  account  of  his  dissension  with  Constantine  became 
extremely  hostile  to  the  Christians,  expecting  to  grieve  him  by 
the  misfortunes  of  his  religion,  and  regarding  the  church  as  of- 
fering prayer,  and  strenuously  endeavoring  that  he  might  exer- 
cise the  imperial  sway  alone.' ^  And  Eusebius,  in  his  celebration 
of  the  victory,  rep'esents  the  martyrs  who  fell  during  the  perse- 
cution, as  having  anticipated  the  triumph  of  their  champion,  and 
desired  to  live  to  witness  and  share  the  happiness  with  which  the 
church  was  filled  on  the  restoration  of  peace.^ 

VI.  The  emperors  were  alarmed  by  these  desires  and  designs 
of  the  Christians  towards  Constantine,  and  doubtless  by  favora- 
ble dispositions  exhibited  by  him  towards  the  church,  and  resolved 
and  attempted  to  destroy  him,  but  he  was  extricated  from  their 
plots,  and  exalted  to  imperial  power. 

"  Galerius,  after  the  abdication  of  Diocletian  and  Maximian 
Herculius,  conducted  himself  as  though  he  were  sole  emperor, 
for  he  disregarded  Constantius  both  on  account  of  his  mild  dis- 
position and  his  ill  health,  and  designed,  if  he  did  not  soon  die, 
which  he  hoped,  to  depose  him." 

"  Constantius,  on  becoming  dangerously  ill,  sent  letters,  as 
he  had  repeatedly  before,  desiring  Galerius  to  release  his  son 
Constantine,  who  had  been  held  by  Diocletian  and  Maximian  as 
a  hostage,  and  allow  him  to  return  to  him.  But  Galerius  wished 
nothing  less,  for  he  had  often  attempted  to  destroy  him  by  treach- 
ery, not  venturing  on  any  thing  against  him  openly,  for  fear  of 
provoking  a  civil  war,  or  exciting  the  hatred  of  the  soldiers. 
Under  pretence  of  exercise  and  sport,  he  exposed  him  to  wild 
beasts,  but  without  gaining  his  end,  as  he  was  protected  by  that 
divine  hand  that  afterwards  freed  him  from  the  emperor's  toils  in 
the  crisis  of  his  danger.  For  having  often,  when  he  could  no 
longer  evade  it,  given  him  a  seal  towards  the  close  of  the  day, 
and  ordered  that  on  receiving  directions  he  should  early  on  the 

'  Lactantii  de  Mort.  Persccut.  c.  i.  '  Sozomeni  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  i.  c.  7. 

'  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  x.  c.  1. 


THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON.  319 

follow  Jig  morning  set  out,  he  either  himself  retained  him  on 
some  pretence,  or  sent  forward  letters  directing  Severus  to  retain 
him.  Constantine  foreseeing  that  that  would  be  repeated,  imme- 
diately on  the  emperor's  falling  asleep  after  supper,  hastened  to 
depart,  and  using  all  the  public  horses  through  several  days' jour- 
ney, fled  with  the  utmost  haste.  The  next  day  the  emperor,  after 
designedly  delaying  to  rise  till  noon,  commanded  that  he  should 
be  called,  and  on  being  told  that  he  had  gone  the  previous 
evening,  began  to  rage,  and  ordered  post  horses  that  he  might 
cause  him  to  be  brought  back,  and  hearing  that  he  had  taken 
them  all,  could  scarcely  refrain  from  tears.  But  Constantine 
advancing  with  the  utmost  celerity,  went  to  his  father,  who  was 
near  death,  and  who  having  recommended  him  to  the  army,  trans- 
ferred the  government  to  his  hands.  And  Galerius,  though  re- 
luctant, was  induced,  from  the  fear  of  a  civil  war,  to  ratify  his 
election,  and  send  him  the  purple."^ 

Eusebius  also  :  "  The  emperors  of  the  time  were  excited  to 
envy  and  fear  by  the  dignity  of  his  person,  his  talents,  and  high 
spirit,  and  watched  him  with  the  desire  to  turn  something  to  his 
discredit,  which  the  young  man  perceiving,  for  their  plots  were 
several  times  detected,  he  saved  himself  by  flight.  Having  thus 
escaped  from  their  toils,  he  proceeded  with  haste  to  his  father. 
Constantius,  who  was  dangerously  ill,  on  seeing  his  son,  leaped 
from  his  couch,  and  embracing  him,  gave  thanks  to  God  that  the 
only  sorrow  he  felt  as  he  was  about  to  depart,  was  thus  removed 
by  the  restoration  of  his  son  ;  and  said  he  now  regarded  death 
as  better  for  him  than  perpetual  life  ;  and  having  settled  his  af- 
fairs, constituted  his  eldest  son  the  heir  of  his  empire,  and  bid 
adieu  to  his  children,  he  expired.  But  the  government  did  not 
remain  without  an  imperial  head.  Constantine  assuming  the  pur- 
ple proceeded  from  the  palace,  and  exhibited  his  father  as  it  were 
to  the  multitude  living  and  reigning  again  in  himself ;  and  hav- 
ing celclirated  his  obsequies  with  great  splendor,  was  saluted 
by  all  with  shouts  and  acclamations  as  emperor  and  Augus- 
tus."2 

A  similar  account  is  given  by  Philostorgius  :  "  The  death  of 
Constantius  took  place  in  Britain,  where  Constantine,  having  in 
an  extraordinary  manner  escaped  the  plots  of  Diocletian,  found 
him  ill ;  and  after  the  celebration  of  his  funeral,  was  constituted 
his    successor   to   the    empire."^     He   was   repeatedly   plotted 

'  Lactantii  de  Mort.  Persecut.  c.  xxiv.  xxv.     Zosirai  Hist.  lib.  ii.  c.  8. 
"  Eusebii  de  Vita  Constant,  lib.  i.  c.  20,  21,  22. 
*  Philostorgii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  5. 


320  THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON. 

against  also  at  a  later  period  by  Maximianus  Herculius  and  Li 
cinius.^ 

VIT.  He  became  in  that  station  a  usurper  of  the  rights  of  God, 
by  assuming  an  absolute  authority  over  the  religion  of  his  Chris- 
tian subjects.  In  prescribing  their  faith  and  worship,  he  treated 
their  religious  obligations  as  under  his  jurisdiction,  and  thence 
the  rights  and  legislation  of  the  Most  High  as  subordinate  to  his, 
and  dependent  on  his  for  their  efficiency.  And  he  asserted  that 
dominion  over  God  and  his  people,  in  all  the  forms  which  such 
an  arrogation  of  the  divine  rights  could  assume,  acting  as  the 
king  of  the  church,  its  lawgiver,  and  its  judge. 

He  assembled  synods,  and  dictated  what  topics  they  should 
discuss  and  adjudge.  He  ordered  the  synod  of  Rome  in  313,  to 
hear  the  accusers  of  Caecilianus.^  He  summoned  the  council  of 
Aries  in  314,  to  rejudge  the  cause  of  the  Donatists.  The  fol- 
lowing is  a  part  of  a  letter  addressed  by  him  on  that  occasion  to 
the  bishop  of  Syracuse.  "  We  have  ordered  a  great  body  of 
bishops  from  different  and  almost  numberless  places,  to  assem- 
ble at  the  city  of  Aries,  by  the  first  of  August,  and  write  to  di- 
rect you  to  take  a  public  vehicle,  with  two  of  the  second  order 
whom  you  may  choose,  and  three  youths,  who  may  serve  you 
on  the  way,  and  present  yourself  at  the  forementioned  place  on 
that  day,  that  by  your  gravity,  and  the  judgment  of  the  others 
who  are  to  assemble,  this  disgraceful  contest  which  has  so  long 
continued,  may  be  terminated  in  harmony.""*  He  summoned  the 
councils  of  Nicaea  also  and  Tyre.^ 

VHI.  He  treated  their  decrees  as  dependent  for  their  authority 
on  his  ratification,  and  by  his  edicts  made  them  laws  of  the  em- 
pire. "  The  decrees  which  the  bishops  had  enacted  in  the  coun- 
cils he  ratified,  so  that  it  was  not  lawful  for  the  prefects  of  the 
provinces  to  rescind  their  canons."'' 

IX.  He  endeavored  to  compel  his  subjects  to  acquiesce  in  his 
faith.  Thus  in  the  letter  which  he  addressed  to  the  churches 
after  the  synod  of  Nicsea.  "  As  I  have  a  proof  in  the  prosper- 
ous condition  of  the  empire  of  the  greatness  of  God's  goodness 
towards  us,  I  have  thought  it  becomes  me  to  endeavor  especially 
that  one  faith,  sincere  love,  and  a  uniform  worship  of  the  omni- 
potent God,  should  be  maintained  by  all  the  happy  multitudes  of 
the  Catholic  church.     But  as  it  could  not  be  firmly  and  unalter- 

>  Euscbii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  viii.  c.  13.     Lib.  x.  c.  8.     De  Vita  Const,  lib.  i.  c.  50. 

*  Labbei  Coiicil.  torn.  ii.  p.  463. 

'  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  x.  c.  5,  p.  320.     Labbei  Coacil.  torn.  ii.  p.  4G6. 

*  Eusebii  de  Vita  Const,  lib.  iii.  c.  6.     Lib.  iv.  c.  41. 
'  Eusebii  de  Vita  Const,  lib.  iv.  c.  27. 


THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON.  321 

ably  settled,  except  all  or  at  least  a  great  number  of  the  bishops 
met,  and  made  a  decision  in  respect  to  each  particular  that  con- 
cerns religion,  as  many  as  could  have  assembled,  and  I  myself 
as  one  of  you,  being  present, — for  I  would  not  deny  that  in  which 
I  chiefly  rejoice,  that  I  have  become  your  fellow  servant, — all 
things  were  discussed  until  a  decision  acceptable  to  the  all-seeing 
God  was  unanimously  adopted,  so  that  no  room  is  left  for  diver- 
sity or  contention."^ 

He  accordingly  proceeded  to  enforce  the  .creed  of  the  synod 
on  all  his  subjects,  to  prohibit  all  assemblies  of  dissentients  from 
the  Catholic  church,  confiscate  their  property,  and  suppress  their 
books.  "  Having  removed  those  dissensions  and  settled  the 
church  of  God  in  harmony,  turning  then,  he  thought  a  different 
class  of  the  impious  ought  to  be  broken  up  as  enemies  to  the 
community ;  for  certain  persons  were  pests,  laying  waste  the 
cities  under  a  pretext  of  piety.  The  Saviour  called  them  false 
prophets  and  ravening  wolves,  when  he  said  prophetically,  Be- 
ware of  the  false  prophets  who  will  come  to  you  in  the  dress  of 
sheep,  but  beneath  they  are  ravening  wolves.  Ye  shall  know 
them  by  their  fruits.  Sending  therefore  an  edict  to  the  prefects 
of  the  provinces,  he  dispersed  every  such  tribe  ;  and,  in  addition 
to  that  law,  enjoined  the  vivifying  doctrine  on  them  personally, 
exhorting  men  to  an  earnest  reformation,  inasmuch  as  the  church 
of  God  would  be  to  them  a  harbor  of  salvation.  Hear,  therefore, 
how  he  discoursed  in  the  letters  he  addressed  to  them.  '  Know 
by  this  law,  ye  Novatians,  Valentinians,  Marcionites,  Pauhsls, 
Cataphrygians,  and  all  who  form  sects  by  private  assemblies, 
your  folly  is  involved  in  so  many  falsehoods,  and  your  doctrine 
nnbued  with  such  poisonous  drugs,  that  the  healthy  are  led  by 
you  to  disease,  and  the  living  to  eternal  death.  0  enemies  of 
verity,  adversaries  of  life,  contrivers  of  destruction,  every  thing 
with  you  is  the  opposite  of  truth  and  consonant  with  a  base  de- 
pravity ;  suited  to  the  absurdities  and  fictions  with  which  you  set 
off  falsehood,  but  afflict  the  unoffending,  and  deny  the  light  to 
those  who  believe.  Under  a  pretext  accordingly  of  piety,  perpe- 
tually transgressing,  you  pollute  every  thing,  wound  pure  con- 
sciences with  deadly  strokes,  and  almost  intercept  day  itself  from 
the  eyes  of  men.  But  what  necessity  is  there  to  relate  particu- 
lars, so  outrageous,  so  immeasurable,  so  detestable  are  your  ab- 
surdities, that  the  whole  day  would  not  suffice  to  detail  them. 
It  is  becoming  rather  to  avoid  hearing  and  to  avert  the  eye  from 
such  things,  lest  by  the  narrative  the  pure  faith  should  be  defiled. 

'  Eusebii  de  Vita  Const,  lib.  iii.  c.  17. 
41 


322  THE  WOMAN  A^'D  DRAGON. 

Why  then  should  we  allow  such  evils  any  longer  ?  The  conse- 
quence indeed  of  a  long  endurance  of  them  already  is,  that  the 
healthy  are  infected  as  with  a  pestilent  disease.  Why  therefore 
should  we  not,  by  a  public  animadversion,  cut  up  the  root  of  such 
an  evil  as  quick  as  possible  ?  Wherefore  as  the  plague  of  your 
errors  can  no  longer  be  borne,  we  make  known  by  this  law  that 
no  one  of  you  may  hereafter  dare  to  convene  a  congregation  ;  and 
accordingly  command  that  all  the  edifices  in  which  you  hold  such 
assemblies  be  taken  away  ;  it  being  our  design  not  only  not  to  al- 
low your  superstitious  and  senseless  assemblies  in  pubhc,  but  not 
even  to  permit  them  in  private  houses  or  in  any  separate  places  ; 
but  what  is  far  better,  that  as  many  of  you  as  are  desirous  of  the 
true  and  pure  religion,  should  come  to  the  Catholic  church,  and 
partake  of  its  sanctity,  through  which  you  may  be  able  to  attain 
the  truth.  Far  from  the  felicity  of  our  times  be  the  error  of  your 
perverted  understandings,  I  mean  the  impious  and  deadly  opin- 
ions peculiar  to  the  heretics  and  schismatics.  For  it  becomes 
the  happiness  which  we  enjoy  of  God,  that  those  who  live  with 
good  hope  should  be  led  from  error  into  the  right  way,  from 
darkness  to  the  light,  from  folly  to  the  truth,  from  death  to  sal- 
vation. And  that  the  magistrate  may  have  the  requisite  power 
for  this  remedy,  we  have  commanded,  as  has  already  been  men- 
tioned, that  all  the  houses  of  your  superstition,  that  is  the  orato- 
ries of  all  sects — if  it  be  proper  to  call  their  houses  oratories — be 
without  contradiction  taken  away  and  immediately  delivered  to 
the  Catholic  church ;  but  other  places  adjudged  to  the  public, 
that  no  opportunity  be  hereafter  left  you  of  assembling.  Ac- 
cordingly, let  not  your  forbidden  congregations  from  this  day 
venture  to  meet  in  any  place  whatever,  whether  public  or  pri- 
vate.    Let  this  be  published.' 

"  In  this  manner  the  secret  assemblies  of  the  heterodox  were 
broken  up  by  the  imperial  command,  and  the  wild  beasts  who 
were  the  authors  of  this  impiety,  driven  off.  But  of  those  who 
had  been  deceived  by  them,  some,  through  fear  of  his  sovereign 
threat,  entered  the  church  with  unworthy  views,  dissembling  for 
the  time  ;  and  as  the  edict  required  that  their  books  should  be 
sought,  and  they  who  practised  forbidden  arts  were  detected, 
they  for  that  reason  complied  with  the  law,  consulting  their  safety 
by  dissimulation.  But  others  promptly  turned,  from  a  true  con- 
viction, to  the  hope  of  better  things."^ 

X.  He  claimed  the  right  to  punish  those,  who,  in  their  doc- 
trine or  worship,  declined  submission  to  his  will,  as  guilty  of  a 

'  Eusebii  de  Vita  Constant,  lib.  iii.  c.  G3-CC. 


''  THE   WOMAN  AND  DRAGON.  323 

violalion  of  his  rights,  and  deposed  them  from  office,  confiscated 
their  property,  banished  them  to  distant  provinces,  and  threatened 
them  with  death.  He  deposed  Eusebius,  bishop  of  Nicomedia, 
and  Theognis,  bishop  of  Niceea,*  and,  on  their  recantation,  dis- 
missed their  successors,  and  reinstated  them  in  their  churches.^ 
He  threatened  banishment  to  any  bishop  who  should  refuse  to 
obey  his  summons  to  the  synod  of  Tyre.  "  I  have  sent  Diony- 
sius  a  consul  who  will  suggest  who  ought  to  attend  the  synod' 
with  you,  and  be  present  to  oversee  the  transactions,  and  espe- 
cially to  maintain  good  order.  Moreover,  if  any  one  should  en- 
deavor to  elude  our  commands  and  decline  to  attend,  which  we 
do  not  expect,  some  one  shall  be  sent  by  us  who  will  drive  him 
into  exile,  and  give  it  to  be  seen  that  it  is  not  becoming  to  oppose 
laws  enacted  by  the  emperor  for  the  cause  of  truth."^  He  ban- 
ished Arius,  ordered  that  all  books  written  by  him  and  his  par- 
tisans should  be  burned,  and  threatened  death  to  any  who  should 
be  convicted  of  endeavoring  to  conceal  them.* 

XI.  He  deposed  and  appointed  bishops  at  his  pleasure.  "  Eu- 
sebius and  Theognis  he  ordered  into  exile  from  the  cities  of  which 
they  were  bishops,  and  wrote  to  the  church  of  Nicomedia  to  hold 
the  faith  the  synod  had  imposed,  and  to  choose  orthodox  bishops 
and  obey  them,  but  to  consign  the  memory  of  the  others  to  ob- 
livion ;  and  threatened  to  punish  whoever  should  venture  to  com- 
mend them,  or  entertain  their  opinions.  He  showed  in  those 
letters  also  that  he  was  angry  with  Eusebius  because  he  had 
conspired  against  him  and  favored  the  party  of  the  tyrant,"  Lici- 
nius.  "In  conformity  therefore  with  those  letters  of  the  emperor, 
Eusebius  and  Theognis  were  ejected  from  their  churches,  and 
Amphion  obtained  that  of  Nicomedia,  and  Chrestos  that  of  Ni- 
casa."*  He  deposed  and  banished  Athanasius  also.*^ 

XII.  He  claimed  the  express  sanction  of  God  in  these  acts, 

*  Socratis,  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  8.  Sozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  21. 
''  Socratis,  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  14. 

^  Eusebii  de  Vita  Const,  lib.  iv.  c.  42. 

*  "  Tlie  emperor  condemned  Arius  to  exile,  and  wrote  to  the  bishops  in  all  direc- 
tions and  laics,  ordering  that  tliey  should  hold  him  and  his  adherents  as  impious, 
that  any  of  their  books  that  could  be  found  should  be  burned,  so  that  no  memorial 
either  of  him  or  his  doctrine  should  circulate,  and  that  if  any  one  should  be  detected 
concealing  one  of  their  works  instead  of  delivering  it  that  it  might  be  burned,  he 
should  be  punished  with  death."     Sozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  21. 

^  Sozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  21. 

°  "  The  emperor  being  thus  carried  away  and  driven  to  anger,  sentenced  Atha- 
nasius to  exile,  and  ordered  him  to  reside  in  Gaul.  Some  say  he  did  it  in  order  to 
unite  the  church,  as  Athanasius  had  wholly  refused  to  communicate  with  the 
Arians."     Socratis,  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  35. 


324  THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON. 

and  ascribed  to  the  decrees  of  the  synods  ratified  by  his  edicts  a 
divine  authority,  thereby  arrogating  as  absolute  a  right  to  legis- 
late over  the  laws  of  God,  as  God  has  to  legislate  over  his  sub- 
jects. In  his  letter  to  the  church  of  Alexandria,  he  said  of  the 
synod  of  Nicaea,  "  that  which  three  hundred  bishops  approved, 
is  nothing  else  than  the  judgment  of  God  ;  especially  as  the 
Holy  Spirit  indwelling  in  such  men,  teaches  the  divine  will. 
Wherefore  let  no  one  of  you  doubt,  let  no  one  defer,  but  let  all 
promptly  return  to  the  way  of  truth."'  "  He  exhorted  the  Chris- 
tians of  xYlexandria  to  di^rniss  all  their  differences,  and  agree  in 
the  faith  imposed  by  the  synod,  inasmuch  as  it  was  no  other  than 
the  sentence  of  God  formed  by  the  Holy  Spirit  through  the  har- 
mony of  so  many  bishops."^ 

Xni.  He  incorporated  the  Catholic  church  with  the  national 
government,  by  legalizing  its  worship,  constituting  himself  its 
civil  head,  prohibiting  all  other  Christian  sects,  giving  it  the  right 
of  holding  and  inheriting  property,  investing  its  bishops  with  a 
civil  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  rule,  and  providing  for  their  sup- 
port from  the  public  treasury, — thereby  treating  its  relations  to 
God  as  subordinate  to  its  relations  to  him. 

He  first  legalized  its  worship  by  an  edict  issued  in  conjunction 
with  Licinius  in  the  year  312 ;  but  gave  liberty  to  the  numerous 
and  widely  differing  sects  as  well  as  to  the  CathoUcs,  by  which 
means  dissent  ceasing  to  be  infamous,  as  it  had  before  been,  the 
discipline  of  the  church  was  impaired.  To  remedy  that  evil, 
they  issued  another  edict  in  the  year  313,  in  which  they  gave 
liberty  to  all  Christians,  as  well  as  others,  to  profess  and  exercise 
whatever  religion  they  pleased,  and  yet  legalized  the  religion  of 
the  Christians  with  the  exception  of  the  dissentients  from  the 
Catholics,  guarantied  them  from  all  hinderance  or  molestation,  and 
ordered  the  restoration  to  them  of  the  places  of  worship  and  all 
other  property,  of  which  the  persecuting  emperors  had  deprived 
them,  either  as  individuals,  or  as  bodies.  "We  promulgated 
our  will  with  an  upright  design,  that  no  one  should  be  denied  the 
liberty  of  choosing  and  following  the  discipline  and  worship  of 
the  Christians,  and  that  power  should  be  given  to  each  one  of 
devoting  his  mind  to  that  religion  which  he  might  think  suited  to 
him,  that  the  Deity  might  retain  his  accustomed  regard  and  be- 
nignity towards  all.  We  therefore  write  again  that  it  is  our  plea- 
sure that  the  sects  which  were  enumerated  in  our  former  letters 
to  your  devotion,  should  be  wholly  excluded,  and  whatever  is 
alien  from  our  benignity  be  removed,  and  that  now  freely  and 

*  Socratis,  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  9.  ^  Sozonicni  Ilist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  25. 


THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON.  325 

simply  each  of  those  who  have  chosen  the  rehgion  of  the  Chris- 
tians, should  without  molestation  observe  that  religion  itself," — 
not  any  of  its  heresies. 

"  We  decree  further  also  in  favor  of  the  Christians,  that  if  their 
places  in  which  they  were  formerly  accustomed  to  assemble,  and 
in  respect  to  which  a  different  direction  was  given  in  the  former 
letter  addressed  to  you,  are  found  to  have  been  purchased  by  any 
one  either  of  the  treasury  or  of  any  one  else,  they  be  restored  to 
those  Christians  without  money,  without  a  demand  of  any  other 
equivalent,  and  without  any  delay  or  hesitation  ;  and  that  if  any 
person  have  received  those  places  as  a  gift,  he  immediately  re- 
store them  to  those  Christians. 

"And  as  the  same  Christians  are  known  to  have  possessed 
not  only  the  places  in  which  it  was  their  custom  to  assemble,  but 
others  also,  pertaining  not  to  individuals  among  them,  but  to  their 
common  right  as  a  body,  you  will  order  all  those  to  be  restored 
without  hesitation  to  those  Christians,  that  is,  to  each  body  of 
them  and  synod. "^ 

XIV.  He  constituted  himself  the  civil  head  of  the  Catholic 
church,  by  arrogating  and  exercising  the  same  right  of  legislation 
over  it  as  he  exercised  over  the  civil  empire,  and  expressly  claim- 
ing that  he  was  constituted  by  the  Almighty  the  overseer  of  its 
external  things,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  bishops  held  that  they 
were  the  overseers  of  its  interior  affairs.  "  To  all  under  the  rule 
of  the  Romans,  both  people  and  soldiers,  the  gates  of  idol-wor- 
ship were  closed,  and  every  species  of  sacrifice  interdicted.  A 
law  enjoined  also  the  prefects  of  the  provinces,  that  the  Lord's 
day  should  be  religiously  celebrated.  By  the  emperor's  com- 
mand they  observed  also  the  anniversaries  of  the  martyrs,  and 
honored  in  the  churches  the  seasons  of  the  feasts.  All  these  things 
were  done  by  the  emperor  zealously.  Whence,  appropriately, 
when  he  received  the  bishops  at  a  feast,  he  asserted  tliat  he  him- 
self was  a  bishop,  uttering  these  words  in  our  hearing.  '  You 
indeed  of  the  interior  things  of  the  church,  but  I  am  a  bishop 
ordained  of  God  of  its  exterior  affairs.'  And  therefore  entertain- 
ing views  conformably  to  his  words,  he  exercised  an  oversigtit  of 
all  who  were  subject  to  his  rule,  and  excited  them  as  far  as  he 
was  able  to  pursue  a  religious  life.'"^ 

XV.  By  the  edict  of  JVIilan  he  recognised  the  right  of  the 
church  to  purchase  and  hold  property,  and  reinstated  the  several 
congregations  in  the  possession  of  the  buildings  and  grounds 

*  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  x.  c.  5. 

*  Eusebii  do  Vita  Coust.  Jib.  iv.  c.  23,  24. 


326  THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON. 

which  liad  been  taken  from  ihem  during  tlie  persecution  ;  and  by 
a  law,  in  the  year  321,  gave  leave  to  his  subjects  to  bequeath 
property  to  it  by  will.  "  Let  every  one  at  death  have  liberty  to 
leave  whatever  property  he  pleases  to  the  holy  and  venerable 
council  of  the  Catholic  churcii."^ 

XVI.  He  released  the  ministers  of  the  Catholic  church  from 
liability  to  civil  offices,  many  of  which  being  extremely  burden- 
some, the  enemies  of  the  church  intrigued  to  devolve  on  the 
Catholic  clergy,  that  they  might  thereby  vex  and  harass  them. 
*'  As  it  is  shown  by  many  events  that  a  contempt  of  that  religion 
by  which  a  high  reverence  of  the  divine  majesty  is  maintained, 
is  fraught  with  the  greatest  danger  to  the  republic  ;  but  tiiat  the 
adoption  and  observance  of  it  procures  the  utmost  good  fortune 
to  the  Roman  name,  and  eminent  prosperity  to  all  the  affairs  of 
men  through  God's  beneficent  providence,  it  is  our  pleasure  that 
those  men  who,  with  becoming  sanctity  and  observance  of  this 
law,  devote  themselves  to  the  ministry  of  that  divine  religion, 
siiould  receive  a  reward  of  their  labors.  I  therefore  wish  those 
who  in  the  province  intrusted  to  you  exercise  the  ministry  of  that 
holy  religion  in  the  church  over  which  Cgecilianus  presides,  and 
who  are  usually  called  clergy,  be  held  exempt  from  all  civil  offices 
whatever,  so  that  they  may  not,  through  any  error  or  sacrilege, 
be  withdrawn  from  the  worship  that  is  due  to  the  Deity,  but 
rather  without  molestation  serve  in  their  own  vocation."^ 

"  We  learn  that  the  clergy  of  the  Catholic  church,  contrary  to 
the  imnmnities  granted  them,  are  harassed  by  the  agency  of  the 
heretics,  by  the  nominations  and  appointments  to  civil  offices 
which  public  custom  requires.  It  is  our  pleasure,  therefore,  if 
your  gravity  finds  any  one  so  vexed,  that  another  be  substituted 
ia  his  place,  and  that  hereafter  men  of  that  religion  be  protected 
from  such  injuries."^ 

XVII.  He  released  the  Catholic  clergy  from  taxes  and  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  civil  courts,  and  invested  the  bishops  with 
authority  to  decide  their  causes.  "  He  exempted  the  clergy  uni- 
versally, by  an  express  law,  from  taxes,  permitted  those  who  were 
litigating  to  appeal  to  the  judgment  of  the  bishops,  if  they  chose 
to  decline  the  civil  magistrates,  and  their  judgment  was  as  au- 
thoritative, and  prevailed  over  the  other  judges,  as  much  as 
though  it  were  rendered  by  the  emperor.  Their  decisions  the 
praefects  of  the  provinces  and  the  soldiers  that  served  them  carried 
into  effect.     The  decrees  of  the  synods  also  were  unalterable."^ 

'  Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  ii.  1.  4.  "  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  x.  c.  7. 

'  Codicis  Ttieod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  ii.  1.  1,  2,  7.  *  Sozonieui  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.  c.  9 


THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON.  327 

XVIII.  He  made  provision  for  their  support  from  the  public 
treasury.  "  Constantine  Augustus,  to  Caecihanus,  bishop  of 
Carthage  : — It  being  my  pleasure  that  something  should  be  ap- 
propriated for  the  expenses  of  certain  of  the  ministers  of  the  le- 
gitimate and  holy  Catholic  religion,  through  all  the  provinces  of 
Africa,  Numidia,  and  Mauritania,  I  have  sent  letters  to  Ursus, 
the  most  illustrious  of  the  Catholics  of  Africa,  and  signified  to 
him  that  he  should  pay  to  your  gravity  three  thousand  foUes" — 
about  eighty  thousand  dollars.  "  You  therefore  when  you  have 
received  that  sum,  will  order  it  to  be  distributed  to  those 
enumerated  in  the  schedule  sent  to  you  by  Hosius.  And  should 
you  learn  that  any  thing  is  wanting  to  accomplish  my  desire  to- 
wards them  all  in  respect  to  this,  it  will  be  your  duty  to  ask  im- 
mediately whatever  you  find  is  necessary  from  the  procurator  of 
our  possessions,  for  I  have  directed  him  if  your  gravity  asks  any 
money  of  him  to  pay  it  without  hesitation."^ 

XIX.  And  finally,  he  debarred  all  Christians  who  dissented 
from  the  Catholic  church  from  the  peculiar  privileges  granted  to 
the  establishment,  subjected  them  to  the  liabilities  of  other  citi- 
zens, prohibited  them  from  assembling  by  themselves  for  wor- 
ship, and  confiscated  their  property.  "  The  privileges  which  we 
granted  in  consideration  of  religion,  ought  to  be  enjoyed  only  by 
the  observers  of  the  Catholic  law.  But  heretics  and  schismatics 
we  wish  not  only  to  be  debarred  from  those  immunities,  but  to 
be  held  liable  and  subjected  to  the  various  civil  duties."^ 

XX.  Along  with  these  usurpations  of  authority  over  the  pre- 
rogatives and  the  people  of  God,  he  introduced  a  flood  of  super- 
stitions, errors,  and  idolatries,  which  debased  the  church,  offended 
the  true  worshippers,  and  forced  them  at  length  to  withdraw  from 
the  national  establishment,  in  order  to  maintain  the  truths  of  the 
gospel  and  offer  a  pure  homage. 

Thus  he  not  only  introduced  and  sanctioned  the  veneration  of 
the  cross,  by  employing  an  image  of  it  as  the  standard  of  his 
troops,  causing  its  figure  to  be  inscribed  on  the  arms  of  the  sol- 
diers, treating  the  fiction  of  its  discovery  at  Jerusalem  and  mi- 
raculous power  as  authentic,  and  countenancing  the  superstitious 
belief  that  it  was  a  protection  from  death  and  danger,  but  he 
made  it  the  object  of  direct  worship.  "  Moreover  the  emperor 
honored  that  victory-giving  standard,  having  had  proof  of  the  di- 
vinity in  it  by  experiment ;  for  by  that  the  multitudes  of  the  hos- 
tile armies  were  put  to  flight,  by  that  the  hosts  of  the  invisible 
demons  were  driven  away,  by  that  the  haughtiness  of  the  ene- 

'  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  x.  c.  6.  '  Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  v.  1.  1. 


328  THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON. 

mies  of  God  was  brought  down,  by  that  the  tongues  of  the  re- 
vihng  and  the  impious  were  silenced,  by  that  the  barbarous 
tribes  were  subjugated,  by  that  the  deceits  of  superstitious  error 
were  detected,  and  to  that  the  emperor,  as  though  discharging  a 
debt,  erected  in  every  part  of  the  empire  triumphal  pillars.'*^ 

He  legalized  and  enjoined  the  homage  and  invocation  of  mar- 
tyrs. "  By  his  order  the  prefects  of  the  provinces  honored  the 
anniversaries  of  the  martyrs,"  of  which  their  invocation  was  an 
element  f  and  he  encouraged  its  continuance  after  his  death,  by 
preparing  his  tomb  in  the  church  of  the  apostles  erected  by  him 
at  Constantinople,  in  order  "  that  he  might  be  honored  by  their 
appellation,  united  to  the  assemblies  there  of  God's  people,  par- 
take of  the  sacred  rites  and  mystical  services,  and  have  the  bene- 
fit of  a  participation  in  the  prayers,"^ 

He  sanctioned  and  legalized  the  assumption  by  the  bishops  of 
legislative  authority  over  the  laws  and  rights  of  God,  by  giving 
ihem  a  legal  establishment,  assembling  them  in  council  for  the 
purpose  of  imposing  their  faith  on  the  church,  ratifying  their  de- 
crees, and  requiring  the  magistrates  of  tlie  provinces  to  enforce 
them  by  the  soldiery.  And  by  augmenting  the  power  of  the 
bishops  by  constituting  them  civil  magistrates,  elevating  them  to 
new  honors,  advancing  them  to  independence  in  a  large  degree  of 
their  flocks,  and  exalting  them  to  wealth,  he  tempted  them  to 
accommodate  their  religion  to  his  ignorance  and  superstition, 
depraved  their  manners  and  morals,  and  inflamed  them  with  a 
boundless  ambition.  And  by  his  example  as  a  usurper  of  abso- 
lute authority  over  religion,  and  persecution  of  all  who  refused 
submission  to  his  will,  justified  and  encouraged  their  arrogant 
assumptions  and  remorseless  tyranny.  From  the  moment  of  his 
nationalization  of  the  church  it  became  an  iron  despotism.  God 
was  no  longer  allowed  to  be  recognised  as  its  sole  lawgiver.  No 
freedom  of  opinion  was  permitted  ;  no  liberty  of  worship  al- 
lowed. Whoever  dissented  from  the  Catholic  church  was  not 
only  made  infamous  to  the  church  itself  by  its  canons  and  usa- 
ges, but  subjected  to  civil  penalties,  and  the  pure  worshippers 
placed  under  the  necessity  either  of  sanctioning  their  impious 
assumptions,  and  uniting  in  their  superstitions  and  idolatries,  or 
withdrawing  from  their  presence. 

XXI.  A  body  of  the  true  people  of  God,  thus  disappointed 
in  their  expectation  of  a  rule  from  princes  professing  Christianity 
more  favorable  to  their  purity  and  peace,  retired  into  seclusion, 

'  Euscbii  de  Land.  Const,  c.  9,  p.  519. 

*  Eusebii  de  Vita.  Const,  lib.  iv.  c.  23.  ^  Ibid.  c.  71. 


THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON.  329 

continued  withdrawn  from  notoriety  for  many  ages,  and  still  sub- 
sists in  total  separation  from  the  apostate  church. 

The  church  of  the  Waldenses  has  existed  through  eveiy  pe- 
riod of  its  history,  in  entire  separation  from  the  nationalized 
church  of  the  kingdoms,  to  which  the  territory  they  inhabit  has 
at  different  periods  belonged.  It  has  had  a  ministry  of  its  own, 
consisting  only  of  presbyters  and  deacons,  and  perpetuated  by 
its  own  ordination.  It  has  held,  professed,  and  vindicated  the 
great  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  that  God  has  the  sole  right  to  legis- 
late in  respect  to  his  worship,  that  the  Scriptures  are  the  only 
authoritative  rule  of  faith,  that  Christ  is  the  only  Redeemer,  that 
his  salvation  is  to  be  obtained  only  by  a  specific  acceptance  of  him 
as  a  sacrifice  and  justifier,  that  whoever  will  may  take  the  water 
of  hfe  freely,  and  that  yet  it  is  by  the  renewing  agency  of  the 
Spirit  alone  that  men  are  led  to  repentance,  faith,  and  love  ;  that 
neither  rulers  nor  ecclesiastics  have  any  right  to  oppress  and 
persecute,  but  that  all  are  required  to  live  meekly,  purely,  and 
justly  towards  one  another,  and  with  fear,  humility,  faith,  and 
love  towards  God. 

It  has  disowned  the  authority  alike  of  the  civil  magistrate  and 
the  nationahzed  church,  to  dictate  its  faith  and  worship.  "  They 
obstinately  maintain  that  nothing  that  is  not  expressly  command- 
ed by  Christ,  or  taught  by  the  apostles,  can  ever  be  constituted 
a  law  by  those  of  a  later  age,  though  decreed  even  by  general 
synods,  inasmuch  as  the  later  church  has  no  legislative  au- 
thority."^ 

It  has  publicly  disowned  the  Romish  church  as  apostate,  pro- 
claimed the  predictions  of  its  overthrow,  and  relied  on  the  prom- 
ise of  the  redemption  of  the  world  and  an  everlasting  kingdorr 
of  righteousness.''^ 

It  has  been  distinguished  for  simplicity,  purity,  and  piety  of 
manners.^  It  has  demonstrated  the  sincerity  and  strength  of  its 
faith  and  love,  by  an  inflexible  adherence  to  the  gospel  against 

'  Quicquid  a  Christo  express^  dictum,  aut  ab  apostolis  traditum,  non  inveuerint, 
etiam  si  hoc  in  saciis  geneialibus  synodis  sit  defiiiitum,  hoc  nulla  lege  intioduci  a 
posteris  potuisse,  obstinate  contendunt,  quasi  nuUam  posterior  ecclcsia  liubuerit  statu- 
endi  auctoritatem.  Claudii  Scyssel,  adv.  Vald.  fol.  10 ;  quoted  by  Mr.  Faber  in  his 
Ancient  Vallenses,  p.  426. 

"  Romanam  Sedem  Meretricem  Magnam  et  errorum  omnium  niagistram  appel- 
lant. Claudii  Scys.  adv.  Vald.  f.  9.  Ncque  censuram  ccclesiasticam  nietiiant,  ne- 
que  praslatorum  et  sacerdotum  auctoritati  trubuant  quicquarn.  Claudii  Scys.  f.  7, 
quoted  by  Mr.  Faber,  p.  426. 

^  Magnam  habet  speciem  pietatis,  eo  quod  coram  bominibus,  juste  vivant,et  bene 
omnia  de  Deo  credant  et  omue.s  articulos  qui  in  symbolo  continontur.  Reincrii  de 
Haerit.  c.  iv.  quoted  by  Mr.  Faber,  p.  273.    Tbuani  Hist.  lib.  vi.  tom.  i.  pp.  168,  189 

42 


330  THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON. 

the  arts  of  a  deceitful  and  seductive  priesthood,  the  trials  of  op- 
pression by  tyrannical  rulers,  and  the  terrors  of  a  bloody  and  re- 
morseless persecution  for  many  ages. 

There  is  adequate  evidence  that  it  has  subsisted  in  the  valleys 
of  the  Cottian  Alps,  through  the  whole  period  from  the  com- 
mencement of  the  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  days.  In  the  first 
place,  there  is  no  proof  whatever  that  it  has  not.  There  is  nei- 
ther any  evidence,  indication,  nor  even  pretence,  that  any  other 
church  than  that  holding  the  doctrines  which  the  Waldenses  held 
on  their  first  attracting  the  notice  of  the  persecuting  powers  in 
the  eleventh  century,  had  ever  existed  in  those  valleys.  Next,  it 
is  admitted  by  their  enemies  that  they  have  existed  there  more 
than  seven  hundred  years,  that  they  were  among  the  earliest  dis- 
sentients from  the  Catholic  church,  and  that  they  claimed  to  have 
occupied  the  valleys  in  which  tliey  still  reside,  from  the  fourth 
century.^  They  themselves  assert  that  their  ancestors  retreated 
into  that  seclusion  on  the  apostasy  of  the  church  at  the  period 
of  its  nationalization,  and  have  continued  there  without  interrup- 
tion and  without  apostasy,  through  every  succeeding  age.  And 
that  representation  is  rendered  credible  by  the  fact,  that  dissen- 
tients from  the  superstition  and  idolatry  of  the  national  church 
are  known  to  have  existed  in  the  vicinity  of  their  valleys  in  the 
beginning  of  the  fifth,  in  the  sixth,  seventh,  ninth,  and  tenth  cen- 
turies. 

And  finally,  they  have  been  preserved  and  nourished  there  by 
the  peculiar  care  of  divine  providence.  With  the  exception  of 
the  Jews,  there  is  no  parallel  in  the  history  of  nations  of  the 
preservation  of  a  people  through  so  vast  a  period,  without  a 
change  of  institutions,  principles,  or  manners.  There  is  no  other 
instance  of  the  perpetuation  as  a  distinct  community,  of  so  small 
and  helpless  a  people,  through  such  a  period,  under  perpetual 
oppression,  and  against  the  frequent  endeavors,  through  seven 
hundred  years,  of  powerful  monarchs  and  remorseless  eaclesias- 

'  Inter  omnes  has  sectas  quce  adhuc  sunt  vel  fiierunt,  non  est  perniciosior  ecclesina 
qnarn  Leonistarum  ;  el  hoc  tribus  de  causis.  Prima  est  quia  est  diuturnior ;  aliqui 
enim  dicunt  quod  duraverit  a  tempore  Sylvestri  ;  aliqui  a  tempore  Apostolorum. 
Secunda,  quia  est  generaUor  ;  fere  enim  nulla  est  terra  in  qua  hsec  secta  non  sit.  Ter- 
tia,  quia  cum  omnes  alisB  sectte  immanitate  blasphemiarum  in  Deum  audientibus 
horrorem  inducant,  hoec,  scilicet  Leonistarum  magnam  habet  speciem  pietatis.  "  Of 
all  the  sects  of  tiie  present  or  former  times,  no  one  is  more  mischievous  to  the  cimrch 
than  tliat  of  tiie  Waldenses,  and  for  three  reasons — it  is  of  longer  continuance,  some 
referring  it  to  the  fourth,  others  to  the  firet  century  ;  it  is  more  widely  diffused,  being 
found  in  almost  every  country  ;  and  it  is  distinguished  for  its  piety  towards  God,  and 
virtue  towards  men."  Reiner,  de  Hcerit.  c.  iv.  quoted  by  Mr.  Faber  in  his  Ancient 
Vallenses,  p.  273. 


THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON.  331 

tics  to  exterminate  them.  They  were  in  1686  driven  from  their 
valleys,  but  by  extraordinary  exertions  and  victories  reconquered 
them  in  1689,  and  were  confirmed  in  the  possession  of  them  by 
their  enemies  :  and  God  has  repeatedly  granted  them  wonderful 
deliverances  in  seasons  of  the  most  imminent  danger,  induced 
the  rulers  of  distant  nations  to  interpose  in  their  behalf,  and 
caused  the  pious  of  remote  realms  to  encourage  and  south  them 
in  their  sorrows,  and  relieve  them  in  their  poverty. 

XXII,  The  assumptions  and  usurpations  of  Constantine  were 
continued  by  his  sons  and  successors.  They  assumed  the  right  ol 
assembhng  synods  and  dictating  their  legislation.  Thus  Constan- 
tius  summoned  the  council  of  Constantinople  in  338,  of  Serdica 
in  347,  of  Sirmium  in  349  and  351,  of  Aries  in  353,  of  Milan  in 
355,  of  Seleuciaand  Rimini  in  359,  of  Anlioch  in  361,  and  others. 
Theodosius  the  Great  summoned  the  first  general  council  of  Con- 
stantinople in  381  ;  Arcadius  the  councils  of  Ephesus  and  Con- 
stantinople in  400  ;  Theodosius  II.  the  third  general  council  of 
Ephesus  in  431,  and  the  fourth  at  Chalcedon  in  451 ;  Justinian  the 
fifth  at  Constantinople  in  541  ;  Constantine  III.  the  sixth  in  GSO  ; 
and  Irene  the  seventh  in  786.  They  continued  to  legislate  over 
the  church  and  treat  it  as  the  creature  of  the  state,  ratified  the 
decrees  of  the  councils  and  incorporated  them  with  tiie  laws  of 
the  empire,  endeavored  to  compel  their  subjects  to  acquiesce  in 
their  faith,  persecuted  those  who  refused  to  conform  to  the  na- 
tionalized church,  deposed  and  appointed  bishops  at  their  pleas- 
ure, and  claimed  the  sanction  of  God  in  those  acts. 

All  the  conditions  of  the  symbol  thus  met  in  the  most  con- 
spicuous manner  in  Constantine  and  his  successors,  and  con- 
tinued to  be  characteristics  of  that  dynasty,  through  all  the  ages 
that  followed,  to  the  subversion  of  tiie  eastern  empire. 

Daubuz  and  some  others  exhibit  the  woman  as  symbolizing 
the  nationalized  cimrch.  But  the  agency  ascribed  to  her  indi- 
cates that  she  represents  believers  only.  It  is  tiie  spiritual,  in  dis- 
tinction from  the  nationalized  and  apostate  church,  that  retreats 
into  the  desert,  and  fulfils  the  office  of  a  witness  through  the 
twelve  hundred  and  sixty  days.  The  nationalized  church  during 
that  period  unites  with  the  wild  beast,  is  the  follower  of  a  false 
instead  of  a  true  prophet,  and  is  a  persecutor  instead  of  a  mar- 
tyr. 

Mr.  Mede,  Mr.  Winston,  Mr.  Daubuz,  Bishop  Newton,  Mr. 
Cuninghame,  and  odiers,  regard  her  as  representing  the  church 
or  people  of  God,  through  the  whole  period  from  the  first  recep- 
tion of  the  gospel  by  the  gentiles,  to  the   time  of  Constantine. 


332  THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON. 

That,  however,  is  inconsistent  with  the  symbol.  As  her  endeavor 
to  bear,  was  at  the  period  when  the  dragon  had  swept  a  third  of 
the  stars  and  cast  them  to  the  earth,  it  must  have  been  not  only 
after  the  first  persecutions  by  Nero  and  Domitian,  but  doubtless 
after  the  first  violences  of  that  by  Diocletian  also,  which  were  pe- 
culiarly directed  against  the  teachers  of  the  church,  and  drove 
many  of  them  to  exile,  reduced  many  to  silence  by  imprisonment, 
and  tempted  some  to  apostasy. 

There  are  no  indications  that  the  Christians  entertained  a  hope 
of  a  revolution  of  the  government  in  favor  of  Christianity,  until  the 
time  of  Diocletian  ;  nor  any  evidence  of  such  an  apostasy  of  the 
nominal  church  at  large,  that  the  people  of  God  retired  into  seclu- 
sion, until  after  the  elevation  of  Constantine.  And  finally,  there 
is  no  more  propriety  in  exhibiting  her  endeavor  to  bear,  as  ex- 
tending through  near  three  hundred  years,  than  in  ascribing  an 
equal  period  to  the  dejection  of  the  stars,  or  the  assumption  of 
her  son. 

Mr.  Brightman,  Dean  Woodhouse,  and  some  others,  regard  the 
dragon  as  representing  the  devil,  and  on  the  ground  that  Satan  is  in 
a  subsequent  vision  denominated  the  dragon.  That  dragon,  how- 
ever, as  will  be  shown  in  the  comment  on  that  passage,  was  not 
an  animal,  but  the  great  fallen  spirit  himself,  named  the  serpent 
from  his  assumption  of  that  brute  in  Eden,  and  a  wholly  differ- 
ent being,  therefore,  from  this  ideal  monster,  and  representing  a 
wholly  different  class  of  agents.  If  this  dragon  be  the  symbol  of 
the  devil,  and  be  employed  as  such  because  the  devil  assumed  a 
serpent  in  his  temptation  of  Eve,  why  was  it  not  formed  after  the 
pattern  of  that  serpent  ?  Why  was  it  invested  with  seven  heads, 
seven  diadems,  and  ten  horns, — peculiarities  which  there  is  not 
the  slightest  ground  to  believe  belonged  to  the  serpent  of  Eden  ? 
Why  is  it  represented  as  giving  its  throne  and  power,  and  great 
authority  to  the  seven-headed  wild  beast,  on  the  emergence  of 
that  monster  from  the  sea  ?  Did  the  devil  abdicate  his  throne  on 
that  occasion,  transfer  his  power  to  that  great  agent,  and  retire 
into  seclusion  ?  But  the  supposition  is  against  analogy  also,  a 
bodied  being  having  no  adaptation  to  symbolize  a  mere  spirit.  Its 
animal  nature,  therefore,  its  peculiarity  of  form,  and  its  suiTcn- 
der  of  its  power,  show,  indubitably,  that  it  is  not  a  symbol  of 
the  devil,  who  is  not  a  corporeal  being,  and  who  will  never  cease 
from  his  malignant  endeavors,  until  bound  and  cast  into  the  bot- 
tomless pit ;  but  is  a  representative  of  the  rulers  of  the  same  em- 
pire at  an  earlier  period,  as  are  symbohzed  after  the  conquest  of 
the  western  half,  by  the  seven-headed  wild  beast.  Its  heads,  like 


THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON.  333 

the  heads  of  that  monster,  denote  its  seven  species  of  chief  mag- 
istrates, and  its  horns  the  kings  of  the  ten  kingdoms  into  which, 
after  its  subversion  the  western  was  divided. 

Mr.  Bush  regards  the  dragon  as  symbohzing  paganism  in  the 
twofold  character  of  a  despotic  government,  and  a  false  religion. 
Agents,  however,  are  symbols  only  of  agents,  not  of  mere  species 
of  opinion  or  modes  of  agency.  He  exhibits  the  symbol  also  as 
denoting  the  pagan  despotic  powers  of  all  preceding  time,  espe- 
cially those  of  Egypt,  Babylonia,  Persia,  Greece,  and  Rome  ;  and 
the  purpose  and  action  of  the  dragon  in  relation  to  the  woman,  as 
denoting  the  agency  of  those  powers  in  all  former  ages  towards 
the  people  of  God.  But  that  is  so  far  to  take  from  its  agency  its 
prophetic  character,  and  treat  it  as  merely  historical.  Though 
five  of  its  heads,  like  those  of  the  ten-horned  wild  beast,  denote  ru- 
lers of  the  Roman  empire  anterior  to  the  vision,  and  are,  there- 
fore, merely  historical,  yet  the  agency  of  the  dragon  is  indisputa- 
bly significant  of  actions  only  that  were  future.  To  assume  that 
the  actions  of  symbolic  agents  are  representative  of  the  past 
as  well  as  the  future,  is  to  deny  to  the  visions  the  office  sole- 
ly of  a  prophecy,  and  render  their  meaning  wholly  uncertain.  If 
a  part  of  the  agency  denoted  by  the  symbolic  actions  of  this  vis- 
ion were  already  passed,  what  certainty  is  there  that  the  whole 
was  not  a  mere  historical  syrabolization  ?  But  as  the  heads  of 
this  monster  denote  undoubtedly  the  same  agents  as  tlie  single 
head  of  Daniel's  fourth  ^\'ild  beast,  to  make  them  representative 
of  the  dynasties  of  Babylonia,  Persia,  and  Greece,  is  so  far  to 
make  that  fourth  beast  the  representative  of  the  same  dynasties 
as  were  symbolized  by  the  three  former,  which  is  indisputably 
incorrect.  The  interpretation  given  to  Daniel,  shows  that  the 
four  beasts  Avere  symbols  of  the  rulers  of  four  different  nations. 
The  head  of  the  fourth  must  accordingly  be  taken  to  denote  the 
same  successions  of  rulers  as  are  symbolized  by  the  seven  lieads 
of  this  mouster.  The  interpretation  of  the  heads  also  given  by 
the  angel,  implies  that  they  were  successive,  not  eotemporaneous; 
five  are  fallen ;  one  is,  and  one  is  not  yet  come ;  and  thence  can- 
not be  representative  of  the  dynasties  of  Babylonia,  Egypt, 
Media,  and  Greece,  as  well  as  Italy,  as  the  nations  of  all  those 
coimtries  existed  cotemporaneously  and  independently  of  each 
other,  anterior  to  Daniel's  vision. 

Dean  Woodhouse  and  Mr.  Bush  regard  the  Avoman  as  denoting 
the  succession  of  true  believers  from  the  beginning  to  the  incar- 
nation, and  the  manchild  as  Christ.  But  that  is  also  to  take 
from  the  symbol  its  proi^hetic  office,  and  make  it  retrospective. 


334  THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON. 

It  is  erroneous,  moreover,  to  exhibit  the  incarnation  of  the  Re- 
deemer as  in  any  manner  the  result  of  the  endeavors  of  the  an- 
cient church. 

Mr.  Cuninghame  exhibits  the  cry  and  endeavors  of  the  woman, 
as  denoting  the  exertions  of  the  church  in  her  first  and  purest  age 
for  the  conversion  of  the  gentiles,  and  the  man-child  as  symboli- 
zing the  whole  body  of  true  converts  within  the  Roman  empire 
at  the  time  of  the  nationalization  of  the  cimrch.  But  that  is  to  ex- 
hibit the  woman  and  man-child  as  representing  the  same  class  of 
persons,  differing  only  in  their  period,  which  is  incongruous.  It 
is  in  contradiction  to  the  symbols  also,  which  not  only  exhibit  the 
woman  and  manchild  as  cotemporaneous,  as  parent  and  offspring 
must  be  for  at  least  a  period,  but  represents  the  woman  as  survi- 
ving through  many  ages  in  the  seclusion  into  which  she  was  driv- 
en. But  it  was  not  the  church  in  her  first  and  purest  age  that 
retreated  into  the  desert,  and  was  there  nourished  through  the 
dangers  of  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years.  It  is  to  contradict  an- 
alogy also.  There  is  a  resemblance  between  a  woman's  giving 
birth  to  a  man-child,  who  may  himself  become  a  parent  and  trans- 
mit a  long  succession  of  descendants,  and  a  community  of  Chris- 
tians presenting  to  a  great  empire  a  race  of  Christian  monarchs, 
either  directly,  by  promoting  the  elevation  of  one  of  their  own  pro- 
fession to  the  throne,  or  by  their  great  influence  in  the  state,  in- 
ducing a  candidate  for  the  throne  to  make  a  profession  of  Chris- 
tianity. But  there  is  no  resemblance  between  a  \voman's  giving 
birth  to  a  child,  and  the  reception  into  itself  by  a  church  of  a  great 
body  of  converts  from  idolatry.  The  processes  are  the  reverse 
of  each  other. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton  exhibits  the  woman  as  the  symbol  of  the  true 
primitive  church,  the  period  of  her  cry  the  persecution  by  Diocle- 
tian, the  man-child  a  Christian  empire,  his  assumption  to  heaven 
the  elevation  of  Constantine  to  supreme  power  by  his  victory  over 
Licinius,  and  the  dragon  as  the  Roman  pagan  empire.  But  nei- 
ther the  man-child  nor  the  dragon  represents  an  empire,  living 
agents  being  representative  only  of  living  agents,  never  of  inani- 
mate objects  ;  nor  is  an  elevation  to  supreme  civil  power,  the 
symbol  of  an  assumption  to  the  throne  of  God.  It  is  an  arroga- 
lion  of  his  rights,  that  is  employed  to  represent  that  assump- 
tion. 

Mr.  Mede  exhibits  the  woman  as  the  primitive  church,  the  pe- 
riod of  her  cry  the  whole  season  of  persecution  by  the  pagan  em- 
perors, the  man-child  as  the  new  converts  to  Christianity,  and  his 
assumption  to  heaven  the  elevation  of  the  Christian  party  to  po- 


THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON.  335 

litical  power  under  Constantine, — errors  that  are  sufficiently  re- 
futed by  what  has  already  been  said. 

Mr.  Faber  regards  heaven  as  a  symbol  of  the  visible  church 
of  the  western  Roman  empire,  the  woman  as  representing  the 
faithful  members  of  that  church,  the  dragon  as  a  symbol  of  its 
unfaithful  members,  and  the  manchild  as  denoting  the  Vallenses 
and  Albigenses  as  sequestered  from  the  pure  worshippers  gener- 
ally. The  first  assumption,  however,  is  not  only  without  authority, 
but  implies  that  heaven  is  the  same  as  the  woman,  the  man-child, 
and  the  dragon,  which  is  to  confound  the  agents  with  the  scene  of 
their  agency.  It  implies  that  the  dejection  of  the  stars  by  the 
dragon,  is  their  excommunication  from  the  visible  church,  in  place, 
as  he  represents,  of  their  seduction  to  apostasy.  It  implies,  ac- 
cording to  his  construction  of  that  symbol,  that  the  dejection  of 
Satan  and  his  angels  from  heaven  to  the  earth,  was  an  excommu- 
nication from  the  visible  church.  It  implies  that  the  woman,  too, 
when  descending  from  heaven  to  the  earth  and  flying  to  the  des- 
ert, was  either  cast  out  of  the  visible  church,  or  else  voluntarily 
withdrew  from  it ;  and  thence,  that  after  Satan's  fall  and  her 
flight,  no  visible  church  remained  except  that  of  the  Vallenses 
and  Albigenses.  It  implies  that  the  agent  symbolized  by  the  sun 
on  which  the  fourth  vial  was  poured,  was  stationed  in  the  visible 
church,  yet  he  interprets  that  symbol  of  the  French  emperor  Na- 
poleon, whom  he  exhibits  as  an  infidel,  not  a  Christian  ruler. 

His  interpretation  of  the  dragon  as  a  symbol  of  the  unfaithful 
members  of  the  visible  church  during  the  twelve  hundred  and 
sixty  years,  is  equally  untenable.  He  exhibits  its  first  six  heads 
as  denoting  the  first  six  species  of  the  supreme  rulers  of  the 
Roman  empire.  But  were  they  members  of  the  Christian 
church  ?  He  exhibits  it  moreover,  and  the  wild  beast  often  horns, 
as  symbols  of  the  Roman  empire  geographically  considered. 
But  how,  if  a  symbol  of  the  mere  territory,  can  it  represent  the 
unfaithful  part  of  the  visible  church  also  ?  If  it  denote  all  apos- 
tate members  of  the  visible  church,  how  can  its  drawing  one 
third  of  the  stars  and  casting  them  to  the  earth  be  interpreted  of 
its  drawing  one  third  of  the  ministers  of  the  church  to  apostasy  ? 
Those  already  apostate  do  not  require  to  be  drawn  to  apostasy. 
Did  it  draw  a  portion  of  those  to  apostasy  whom  itself  repre- 
sents ?  That  were  to  make  it  both  the  agent  and  the  object  of 
its  agency;  both  the  seducer  and  the  seduced.  Did  it  lead  a 
portion  of  those  into  apostasy  whom  the  woman  symbolizes,  or 
the  man-child  ?  That  is  as  palpably  in  contradiction  to  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  vision. 


336  THE  WOMAN  AND  DRAGON. 

His  views  of  the  birth  and  the  man-child,  are  equally  unsatis- 
factory. If  the  woman  denote  all  the  faithful  worshippers  during 
the  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years,  and  the  man-child  a  large 
part  of  those  same  worshippers,  then  the  woman  and  her  off- 
spring are  to  that  extent  the  same,  as  well  after  as  before  the 
birth,  which  is  incongruous.  There  is  no  analogy  whatever  be- 
tween a  birth  and  the  preservation  or  continuance  of  worshippers 
in  the  valleys  of  the  Alps  through  a  succession  of  ages,  while  all 
other  communities  of  pure  worshippers  were  dispersed,  and 
none  but  isolated  individuals  allowed  to  survive.  A  birth  is  a 
commencement  of  life,  their  preservation  is  but  their  continuance 
as  a  community.  The  other  cotemporaneous  pure  Avorshippers 
were  no  more  the  parent  of  the  churches  of  the  Alpine  valleys, 
than  the  churches  of  those  valleys  were  the  parent  of  the  other 
pure  worshippers  with  whom  they  were  cotemporary. 

The  sudden  removal  of  the  man-child  from  the  dragon's  pres- 
ence and  elevation  to  the  throne  of  God,  are  thought  by  Vitringa 
to  denote,  not  merely  Constantine's  extrication  from  the  plots  of 
the  pagan  emperors,  but  that  he  peculiarly  enjoyed  the  approba- 
tion of  God  in  the  nationalization  of  the  church,  and  reigned  in 
an  important  sense  as  his  representative.  But  Constantino  and 
his  successors  are  themselves  symbolized  by  the  seventh  head 
of  the  dragon,  and  cannot  therefore  have  been  the  objects  of 
God's  approbation,  nor  acted  as  his  representative  in  their  ad- 
ministration over  the  church.  Not  one  of  them,  so  far  as  there 
are  now  any  means  of  judging,  gave  any  evidence  of  piety.  All 
of  them,  without  exception,  were  persecutors;  most  of  them 
were  stained  by  the  most  enormous  vices ;  and  the  visible 
church,  in  place  of  deriving  any  advantage  from  their  course  to- 
wards it,  became,  under  their  influence,  so  corrupted  in  doctrine 
and  manners  as  to  lose  the  character  of  a  true  church,  and  drive 
the  true  people  of  God  into  seclusion.  The  import  of  that  ex- 
altation of  the  man-child  to  the  throne  of  God,  is  undoubtedly 
precisely  the  reverse  of  that  which  Vitringa  ascribed  to  it,  and 
denotes,  on  the  one  hand,  his  becoming  an  object  of  idolatrous 
homage,  and  on  the  other,  his  arrogation  of  tiie  right,  which  be- 
longs only  to  God,  of  appointing  the  faith  and  worship  of  his 
subjects,  and  exertion  of  that  usurped  power  to  corrupt  religion, 
and  oppress  and  persecute  the  people  of  God, — crimes  of  which 
Constantino  and  his  successors  were  indisputably  guilty,  which 
were  the  reason  that  the  woman  fled  into  the  desert,  and  which 
rendered  it  proper  that  they  should  be  exhibited  as  a  head  of  the 
dragon. 


THE  WAR  OF  MICHAEL.  337 

SECTION  XXIX. 

CHAPTER    XII.     7-12. 

THE    WAR    OF    MICHAEL. 

And  there  was  war  in  heaven,  Michael  and  his  angels  fighting 
with  the  dragon,  and  the  dragon  fought  also  and  his  angels,  and  pre- 
vailed not,  nor  was  their  place  found  any  more  in  heaven.  And  the 
great  dragon  was  cast  down ;  the  old  serpent,  who  is  called  devil 
and  Satan,  who  deceives  the  whole  world,  was  cast  down  to  the 
earth,  and  his  angels  were  cast  down  with  him. 

And  I  heard  a  great  voice  in  heaven  saying.  Now  is  the  salvation, 
and  the  power,  and  the  kingdom  of  our  God,  and  the  authority  of  his 
Anointed,  for  the  accuser  of  our  brethren,  who  accused  them  before 
our  God  day  and  night,  is  cast  down.  And  they  overcame  him  by 
the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  by  the  word  of  their  testimony  ;  and  they 
loved  not  their  life  unto  death.  Wherefore  rejoice  ye  heavens,  and 
ye  who  dwell  in  them.  Woe  to  the  land  and  to  the  sea  ;  for  the  devil 
is  gone  down  to  you  having  great  wrath,  knowing  that  he  has  but  a 
short  time. 

This  serpent  is  obviously  a  wholly  different  being  from  the 
great  red  dragon  which  endeavored  to  devour  the  man-child. 
There  is  no  indication  that  he  is  an  animal.  There  is  no  ascrip- 
tion to  him  of  seven  heads,  seven  diadems,  ten  horns,  a  tail  that 
swept  the  stars,  nor  an  appetite  for  flesh.  Instead,  and  to  dis- 
tinguish him  from  that  dragon,  he  is  defined  as  the  ancient  ser- 
pent, who  is  called  devil  and  Satan,  who  deceives  the  whole 
world  ;  titles  which  belong  only  to  that  great  apostate  spirit  who 
seduced  our  first  mother,  and  an  agency  that  is  exerted  alone  by 
him.  He  is  a  serpent,  too,  having  subordinates  of  a  similar  na- 
ture, that  fight  under  his  standard.  But  the  seven-headed  dragon 
had  no  troops  of  a  nature  like  his  own.  That,  in  short,  was  a 
fictitious  monster  ;  this  dragon  and  his  angels  are  real  existences. 
This  is  apparent  also  from  the  scene  of  the  contest.  It  were  in- 
congruous to  exhibit  a  dragon,  an  inhabitant  of  water,  as  elevated 
to  the  atmosphere,  and  contending  there  with  an  angelic  being, 
as  though  in  its  natural  element.  When  the  woman  was  exliib- 
ited  in  the  sky,  she  was  represented  as  having  the  moon  as  a 
support  under  her  feet.  This  is  confirmed  finally  by  the  nature 
of  his  opponents,  and  the  actions  ascribed  to  them.  They  are 
Michael,   an  archangel,   and  his  subordinate  angels,  and  they 

43 


338  THE  WAR  OF  MICHAEL- 

make  war.  As  the  armies  are  thus  of  the  same  species,  and  ex- 
ert the  same  species  of  acts,  their  chiefs  are  doubtless  also  of  the 
same  nature. 

Here,  then,  an  obedient  archangel  and  his  subordinates,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  great  apostate  angel  Satan,  and  his  subordinate 
spirits  on  the  other,  are  exhibited  as  waging  a  war  with  one  an- 
other, in  which  Satan,  unable  to  maintain  his  ground,  is  at  length 
driven  from  heaven,  and  dejected  with  his  angels  to  the  earth. 
And  they  are  representatives  of  men,  manifestly  from  the  song  of 
those  in  heaven  which  follows,  in  which  the  conquerors  are  ex- 
hibited as  not  loving  their  life  unto  death,  which  is  predicable 
only  of  men  and  of  martyrs,  not  of  angels  ;  and  as  overcoming 
their  adversaries  by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  and  by  their  testi- 
mony, which  is  predicable  only  of  witnesses  for  God  and  be- 
lievers in  Christ.  Michael  and  his  angels,  then,  are  symbols  of 
believers  in  Christ,  who  gain  a  victory  by  faith  in  his  blood,  by 
proclaiming  his  word,  and  by  submitting  to  martyrdom,  rather 
than  swerve  from  fidehty  to  him.  And  the  victory  is  deemed  to 
indicate  the  approach  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  the  triumphant 
reign  of  Christ.  Satan  and  his  angels,  on  the  other  hand,  sym- 
bolize antagonists  of  believers,  who  endeavor  by  contradiction  to 
countervail,  or  persecution  to  prevent  their  testimony,  and  main- 
tain the  supremacy  of  idolatry.  It  is  shown  also  by  the  repre- 
sentation, that  Satan  accused  their  brethren  before  God,  that  the 
question  between  them  was  one  of  religion,  not  of  political  power. 

The  kingdom  of  God  chanted  by  the  voice  from  heaven,  the 
scene  of  the  war,  as  at  hand,  is  the  kingdom  that  is  to  be  estab- 
lished at  the  final  overthrow  of  antichrist,  in  which  the  Messiah 
is  visibly  to  reign.  That  chant  was  uttered  by  the  victors,  and 
indicates  that  the  church  was  to  regard  its  growth  to  a  majority, 
and  the  change  in  public  feeling,  by  which  its  persecution  had  be- 
come unpopular  even  with  multitudes  of  the  pagans,  as  insur- 
ing the  speedy  advent  of  Christ,  and  commencement  of  his  mil- 
lennial reign.  The  heavens  summoned  to  rejoice,  are  the  new 
heavens,  the  symbol  of  the  risen  and  glorified  saints,  who  are  to 
descend  with  the  Redeemer,  and  reign  with  him  as  kings.  They 
who  dwell  in  those  heavens,  are  the  sanctified  nations  who  are 
to  live  under  their  sway.  On  the  other  hand,  the  land  and  the 
sea,  contradistinguished  from  the  new  heavens  and  those  who 
dwell  in  them,  denote  the  nations  at  rest  and  in  agitation,  anterior 
to  the  establishment  of  that  millciniial  kingdom.  That  the  dejec- 
tion of  Satan  and  his  angels  was  to  be  a  woe  to  the  earth  and 
the  sea,  indicates  that  the  decline  of  the  pagan  party  into  a  mi- 


THE   WAR  OF  MICHAEL.  339 

nority,  was  to  exasperate  its  priests  and  rulers,  and  lead  them  to 
more  violent  methods  to  overwhelm  their  antagonists,  and  rein- 
state themselves  in  authority.  From  the  persecution  of  the  wo- 
man, and  attempt  by  the  seven-headed  dragon  to  destroy  her 
during  her  flight  to  the  desert,  whicli  are  exhibited  in  the  vision 
that  follows,  it  is  seen  that  the  period  of  this  contest  w^as  ante- 
rior to  her  retreat  into  seclusion,  and  the  commencement  of  the 
twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years. 

This  angel  war,  then,  it  is  apparent  from  these  characteristics, 
was  symbolic  of  the  struggle  of  the  faithful  teachers,  confes- 
sors, and  martj'rs  of  the  gospel  on  the  one  hand,  to  spread  and 
give  supremacy  to  Christianity,  and  of  the  pagan  priests  and 
their  active  abettors,  the  persecuting  rulers  especially  on  the 
other,  to  maintain  the  dominion  of  idolatry.  It  was  not  a  strife 
for  political  power,  manifestly  from  the  means  by  which  the  vic- 
tory was  gained.  They  overcame  the  dragon,  not  by  the  sword, 
but  by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  by  their  testimony.  It  were 
against  the  law  of  symbolization  also,  to  interpret  it  as  a  literal 
war.  As  the  symbol  war  was  one  of  force,  analogy  requires 
that  that  which  it  symbolizes  should  be  one  of  authority  and  per- 
suasion. The  victory  of  Michael  was  such  a  success  of  the 
Christian  army  as  to  turn  the  current  of  public  belief  and  feel- 
ing in  their  favor,  and  produce  at  length  a  revolution  in  the  civil 
government,  by  which,  instead  as  before,  of  accusation  as  apos- 
tates, they  were  formally  recognised  as  true  worshippers  of  God, 
tolerated  in  their  faith  and  worship,  and  inspired  with  the  expec- 
tation that  the  commencement  of  Christ's  millennial  reign  was 
at  hand.  The  period  of  this  war  was  the  period  therefore  of 
the  persecutions  by  Diocletian,  Galerius,  Maxentius,  Maximin, 
and  Licinius  ;  and  the  victory,  that  change  of  public  feeling 
wrought  by  the  testimony  and  faith  of  the  teachers  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  sufferings  and  constancy  of  the  confessors  and  martyrs, 
that  rendered  persecution  and  paganism  itself  unpopular,  prompt- 
ed Constantino  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  Christians,  and  finally 
led  to  the  rejection  of  paganism  as  the  religion  of  the  state, 

I.  The  persecution  by  Diocletian  and  Galerius,  instead  of  weak- 
ening the  church,  and  adding  strength  to  the  pagans,  produced 
the  opposite  effect.  The  horrible  evils  inflicted  on  the  unolTcnd- 
ing  and  viriuous  Clirisiians,  touched  multitudes  of  the  idolaters 
with  sympathy  and  sorrow  ;  while  their  invincible  constancy,  and 
the  joy  and  exultation  with  which  tliey  met  the  most  ignominious 
and  hideous  death,  impressed  them  with  wonder,  begat  the  feel- 
ing that  they  were  supported  by  a  supernatural  power,  and  thus 


340  THE  WAR  OF  MICHAEL. 

gave  birth  to  the  wish  that  they  should  be  freed  from  persecu- 
tion, and  allowed  the  profession  of  their  religion  in  peace.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  merciless  oppression  by  those  tyrants  of  the 
whole  body  of  their  subjects,  pagan  as  well  as  Christian,  excited 
a  general  teiTor  and  disgwst  of  such  rulers,  and  desire  for  the 
elevation  to  power  of  just  and  tolerant  princes,  like  Constantius 
Chlorus.  Thus  Laclantius  : — "  Another  reason  that  the  people 
of  God  are  permitted  to  be  persecuted  is,  that  they  may  be  mul- 
tiplied. Nor  is  it  difficult  to  show  why  or  how  that  takes  place. 
Many  are  repelled  from  the  worship  of  the  gods  by  a  dislike  of 
their  cruelty  ;  for  who  does  not  regard  their  sacrifices  with  hor- 
ror ?  Some  approve  of  virtue  and  the  faith.  Some  are  led  to  sus- 
pect that  it  is  not  without  cause  that  the  worship  of  the  gods  is 
regarded  as  wrong,  by  so  many,  who  prefer  to  die  rather  than  do 
that  which  others  do  that  they  may  live.  Some  feel  a  desire  to 
know  what  that  good  is  which  is  adhered  to  even  to  death,  which 
is  preferred  to  all  that  is  pleasing  and  dear  in  life,  from  which 
neither  the  loss  of  goods  nor  of  light,  neither  pains  of  body  nor 
tortures  of  the  heart  can  deter.  Such  considerations  have  great 
influence,  but  the  causes  that  have  chiefly  augmented  our  num- 
ber are  these  : — The  crowd  standing  around,  hear  the  martyrs 
say  in  the  midst  of  their  torments,  that  they  sacrifice  not  to 
statues  made  by  the  hands  of  man,  but  to  the  living  God,  who  is 
in  heaven.  Many  perceive  and  feel  that  this  is  true.  Then,  as 
is  usual  in  regard  to  things  that  are  not  understood,  in  asking  one 
another  what  the  cause  can  be  of  that  perseverance,  many  things 
that  pertain  to  religion  are  introduced,  investigated,  and  learned, 
which,  from  their  excellence,  necessarily  give  pleasure.  More- 
over, persecution  itself,  as  always  happens,  strongly  impels  to 
belief.  Nor  is  it  a  slight  cause  that  of  the  multitudes  whom  the 
impious  spirits  of  demons  enter,  all  who  are  healed  by  their  ex- 
pulsion adhere  to  the  religion  whose  power  they  have  experien- 
ced. These  numerous  causes  united,  have  drawn  a  great  mul- 
titude in  a  wonderful  manner  to  God."^ 

As  the  persecution  of  the  Christians  thus  multiplied  their 
number,  so  the  insupportable  tyranny  of  their  persecutors,  led 
the  population  generally,  pagan  as  well  as  Christian,  to  wish  for 
their  destruction,  and  to  hail  Constantino's  victory  as  a  deliver- 
ance. Constantino  himself  represents  the  population  at  large  as 
murmuring  under  the  cruel  oppressions  and  wanton  slaughters 
to  which  they  were  subjected  by  Diocletian,  Galerius,  Maxen- 
tius,  Maximin,  and  Licinius,  and  as  cherishing  their  love  of  free- 
'  Lactautii  lust.  lib.  v.  de  Just.  c.  22. 


THE  WAR  OF  MICHAEL.  341 

4om,  and  invoking  God  to  deliver  them.  "  The  issue  of  their 
tyrannical  course  vi^as  predicted  by  the  intelligent,  for  they  w^ere 
neither  silent,  nor  concealed  their  lamentations  at  those  outrages, 
but  openly  and  publicly,  without  reserve,  said  to  one  another, 
""  What  madness  !  what  insolence  of  power  in  men  to  dare  to 
make  war  on  God,  to  delight  to  insult  a  most  holy  and  righteous 
religion,  and  without  provocation  plot  the  destruction  of  such  a 
multitude  of  just  men  !'  "  "  At  length  divine  providence  took 
vengeaace  of  their  impious  deeds,  not,  however,  without  the  in- 
jury of  the  public  ;  for  the  slaughters  that  have  been  perpetra- 
ted, had  they  been  slaughters  of  the  barbarians,  would  be  enough 
to  ensure  an  eternal  peace  ;  for  the  whole  army  of  Diocletian 
being  subjected  to  the  power  of  the  rude  man  who  seized  the 
government  of  the  empire  by  force,  after  God  had  liberated  the 
capital,  was  wasted  in  numerous  wars.  But  how  do  the  cries 
to  God  of  those  who  were  oppressed,  and  desired  their  natural 
liberty,  and  after  the  removal  of  those  evils,  the  oflferings  of 
thanks  to  him  for  the  restoration  of  freedom  and  justice,  bespeak 
Iiis  care  and  love  towards  men."^ 

Accordingly  on  Constantino's  entering  Rome  after  the  defeat 
and  death  of  Maxentius,  "  the  whole  senate,  all  the  superior  or- 
ders, and  the  people  with  their  wives  and  children,  received  him 
with  glad  countenances,  shouts,  and  exultation,  as  their  liberator, 
saviour,  and  benefactor."^ 

11.  The  question  which  of  their  religions  was  genuine  and  to 
prevail,  was  considered  by  both  parlies  as  on  trial  in  the  contest 
of  that  period,  and  to  be  determmed  by  its  issue. 

Such  were  the  views  of  Constantino:  "  The  whole  body  of 
foot  and  horse  was  assembled  by  him,  and  at  their  head  was 
borne  the  cross,  the  symbol  of  a  good  hope  in  God.  Moreover, 
aware  that  then  if  ever  he  needed  prayers,  he  took  the  priests  of 
God  with  him,  regarding  their  continual  presence  as  a  protection 
of  his  life.  Licinius  naturally,  on  learning  that  Conslanline 
made  his  preparation  for  victory  over  his  enemies,  as  though  it 
were  to  be  gained  only  through  God's  co-operation,  that  the 
priests  whom  I  have  mentioned  were  continually  present  and 
communicating  with  him,  and  the  standard  of  the  cross  always 
borne  before  him  and  his  troops,  thought  it  ridiculous,  and 
mocked  and  traduced  him.  He,  however,  collected  around  hmi- 
seif  Egyptian  seers  and  diviners,  enchanters,  jugglers,  and  the 
priests  and  prophets  of  those  whom  he  regarded  as  gods,  and 

'  Const.  Orat.  ad  Sanct.  Coet.  c.  25- 
^  Eiisebii  Hisf.  EccL  lih.  ix.  c.  9. 


342  THE  WAR  OF  MICHAEL. 

having  propitiated  his  deities  with  the  sacrifices  which  he  thought 
requisite,  then  inquired  what  was  to  be  the  issue  to  him  of 
the  war  ;  and  they  unanimously  rephed  that  he  was  undoubtedly 
to  prove  the  strongest  in  the  contest,  and  be  victorious  ;  and  that 
in  long  and  elegant  songs  the  oracles  everywhere  promised.  The 
interpreters  also  announced  that  success  was  indicated  by  the 
flight  of  birds,  and  the  priests  asserted  that  similar  things  were 
denoted  by  the  motion  of  the  entrails.  Elated  by  these  deceitful 
promises,  he  advanced  to  the  camp  with  great  confidence,  and 
arranged  his  troops,  as  far  as  he  was  able,  for  the  battle.  And 
vi'hen  he  was  about  to  begin  the  contest,  he  summoned  the  most 
trusty  and  honored  of  his  attendants  and  friends  to  one  of  the 
places  which  they  regard  as  sacred,  a  consecrated  grove,  spa- 
cious and  irrigated,  in  which  were  erected  all  kinds  of  sculptured 
statues  of  those  whom  he  esteemed  gods,  and  having  lighted 
wax  tapers,  and  offered  the  accustomed  victims  to  them,  he  is 
said  to  have  uttered  the  following  address. 

"  '  Friends  and  fellow- warriors,  these  are  the  gods  of  our  fa- 
thers, whom,  received  from  our  earliest  ancestors  as  objects  of 
worship,  we  honor ;  but  he  who  commands  the  army  that  is 
drawn  up  against  us,  having  adopted  an  atheistic  opinion,  vio- 
lates the  customs  of  the  falliers,  venerating  a  god  from  abroad,  I 
know  not  whence,  and  disgraces  his  troops  with  his  ignominious 
standard,  trusting  in  which  he  arms  not  so  much  against  us  as 
against  the  gods  whom  he  offends.  This  occasion  therefore  will 
show  which  of  us  errs  in  his  belief,  and  decide  between  the  gods 
who  are  honored  by  us  and  by  the  other  party  :  for  either  by  show- 
ing us  victors,  it  will  show  our  gods  are  most  justly  regarded  as 
auxiliaries  and  saviours  ;  or  if  the  God  of  Constantine,  come 
from  I  know  not  where,  shall  prevail  over  ours,  who  are  many, 
let  no  one  thereafter  doubt  what  God  ought  to  be  w^orshipped, 
but  gp  to  the  strongest  and  present  to  him  the  reward  of  the  vic- 
tory. If  the  foreign  God,  whom  we  now  deride,  should  appear 
the  mightiest,  we  must  acknowledge  and  honor  him,  and  bid 
adieu  to  those  to  whom  we  have  vainly  lit  wax  tapers.  But  if 
ours  prevail,  which  is  not  to  be  doubted,  then  after  the  victory 
we  must  proceed  to  a  war  against  the  atheists.'  "■* 

The  victory  was  accordingly  regarded  by  Constantine,  the 
church,  and  the  people  at  large,  as  the  victory  of  the  true  God 
over  the  false,  of  Christianity  over  idolatry.  "  When  the  whole 
was  by  the  power  of  God  the  Saviour  subjected  to  him,  he  made 
known  to  all  the  giver  of  his  prosperity,  and  testified  that  God, 

*  Eusobii  do  Vita  Coast,  lib.  ii.  c.  3,  4,  5 


THE  WAR  OF  MICHAEL.  343 

not  he,  was  the  author  of  his  victories."^  And  on  the  release  of 
the  confessors  from  the  mines  and  prisons  by  the  edict  of  Gale- 
rius  and  Maximin,  "  All  the  unbelieving  were  struck  with  as- 
tonishment and  admiration  at  the  extraordinary  change,  and  ex- 
claimed, '  Great  and  alone  true  is  the  God  of  the  Christians.'  "^ 

Til.  The  legal  recognition  of  the  Christian  religion  by  Con- 
stantino, and  patronage  of  its  teachers  and  professors,  inspired  a 
general  persuasion  that  the  happy  period  denoted  by  the  kingdom 
of  God,  and  triumphant  reign  of  Christ  on  earth,  was  at  hand. 

"  On  the  fall  of  Licinius,  the  great  conqueror  Constantino  and 
his  son  Crispus  the  Caesar  received  the  east  as  theirs,  established 
one  government  as  formerly  over  the  Romans,  and  swayed  the 
whole  in  peace  from  east  to  west,  and  from  north  to  south.  The 
people  therefore  being  freed  from  all  fear  of  the  court  with  which 
they  had  before  been  overwhelmed,  held  festal  days  with  great 
splendor.  There  were  everywhere  illuminations.  They  who 
were  before  dejected,  looked  on  one  another  with  joyful  aspects 
and  smiles,  and  with  choirs  and  hymns  through  the  cities  and 
country,  gave  honor  first  to  God  the  supreme  ruler  of  all  as  they 
were  taught,  and  then  to  the  pious  emperor  and  his  children. 
The  miseries  and  impiety  of  the  past  were  forgotten  ;  joy  and 
exultation  prevailed  at  the  blessings  now  promised,  and  happy 
anticipations  of  the  future.  Philanthropic  edicts  were  every- 
where published  by  the  emperor,  and  laws  that  displayed  his  mu- 
nificence and  piely."^ 

Lactantius  also  :  "  Let  us  celebrate  the  triumph  of  God  with 
gladness  ;  let  us  commemorate  his  victory  with  praise  ;  let  us 
make  mention  in  our  prayers  day  and  night  of  the  peace,  which 
after  ten  years  of  persecution,  he  has  conferred  on  his  people."'^ 

IV.  The  voice  uttered  from  heaven  the  scene  of  the  victory, 
"  Now  is  the  salvation,  and  the  power,  and  the  kingdom  of  our 
God,  and  the  authority  of  his  Anointed,"  had  a  signal  counter- 
part in  the  congratulations  and  exultation  of  the  church  at  that 
period. 

Eusebius  represents  ihe  victors  at  the  precipitation  of  Maxen- 
tius  and  his  attendants  into  the  Tyber,  as  saying  like  Moses  at 
the  overthrow  of  the  Egyptians  in  the  Red  Sea,  "  Let  us  sing 
to  the  Lord,  for  he  is  signally  glorified.  Horse  and  rider  he  has 
thrown  into  the  sea.     The  Lord  my  helper  and  defender  was 

'  Eusebii  de  Vita  Const,  lib.  ii.  c.  23.  Coustaiitiui  Oral,  ad  Sanct.  Coet.  c.  22 
Eusebii  Orat.  de  laud.  Const,  c.  G,  7,  9. 

"  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ix.  c.  1.     Orat.  de  laud.  Const,  c.  9,  pp.  518,  519. 

*  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  x.  c.  9.     De  V^ita  Const,  lib.  ii.  c.  19. 

*  Lactautii  de  Mort.  Persecut.  c.  52. 


344  THE  WAR  OF  MICHAEL. 

with  me  unto  salvation.  Who,  0  Lord,  is  hke  to  thee  among 
gods  ?  Who  is  hke  to  thee,  glorified  by  the  holy,  admirable  in 
praise,  doing  wonders  ?  Constantino  entered  Rome  in  triumph, 
hymning  these  and  similar  passages  to  God  the  author  of  the 
victory."^  And  on  the  fall  of  Licinius,  he  represents  the  church 
as  uniting  in  thanksgiving  for  the  deliverance,  and  congratula- 
tions at  the  overthrow  of  idolatry,  and  establishment  of  Christ's 
kingdom  ;  and  devotes  the  tenth  book  of  his  history  to  the  edicts 
of  the  emperor  by  which  the  church  was  nationalized  and  en- 
dowed, and  to  the  restoration  of  the  temples,  and  the  public  re- 
joicings at  their  dedication.  "  Let  thanks  be  given  by  all  to 
the  Almighty  Ruler  of  the  universe,  and  to  Jesus  Christ  our  Sa- 
viour and  Redeemer,  through  whom  we  pray  that  peace  from 
external  foes  may  be  uninterruptedly  preserved  to  us,  and  tran- 
quillity of  mind."  "  Let  us  sing  to  the  Lord  a  new  song,  for  he 
has  done  wonderful  things.  His  right  hand  has  saved  him,  and 
his  holy  arm.  The  Lord  has  made  known  his  salvation  ;  he  has 
revealed  his  righteousness  in  the  presence  of  the  nations.  We 
may  now  appropriately  respond  to  the  inspired  command  to  sing 
a  new  song,  inasmuch  as  after  such  direful  spectacles  and  narra- 
tions, we  now  have  the  happiness  to  see  and  celebrate,  what 
many  holy  men  before  us  and  the  martyrs  for  God,  desired  to 
see  on  earth,  and  did  not  see,  and  to  hear  and  have  not  heard. 
But  advancing  more  rapidly,  they  attained  far  superior  gifts  in 
heaven,  being  caught  up  to  the  paradise  of  celestial  joy  ;  while 
we  acknowledge  the  gifts  we  enjoy  ai'e  greater  than  we  deserve, 
and  contemplate  with  wonder  the  largeness  of  the  divine  bounty. 
Admiring  and  adoring  with  all  our  souls,  we  testify  to  the  truth 
of  the  prophet's  words, '  Come  and  see  the  works  of  the  Lord, 
what  wonders  he  has  wrought  in  the  earth,  abolishing  wars  to 
the  ends  of  the  world.  The  bow  he  has  broken,  he  has  dashed 
the  arms,  the  shield  he  has  burned  in  the  fire.'  Rejoicing  at  the 
manifest  fulfilment  of  these  predictions  to  us,  we  go  on  with  our 
history."  He  goes  on  accordingly  to  represent  the  whole  popu- 
lation, freed  from  the  domination  of  the  tyrants,  and  relieved 
from  oppression,  as  acknowledging  the  only  true  God  and  pro- 
tector of  the  pious,  and  those  especially  who  had  placed  their 
hope  in  Christ,  as  filled  with  inexpressible  joy  ;  the  ministers 
everywhere  delivering  commemorative  addresses,  and  the  whole 
multitude  otfering  praises  and  thanksgiving  to  God.'' 

V.  The  predictions  of  a  woe  to  the  land  and  the  sea  from  the 
overthrow  of  the  idolatrous  party,  had  a  signal  fulfilment  in  the 
'  Eiisebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  i.\.  c.  9.  '  Ibid.  lib.  x.  c.  1,  2,  3. 


THE  WAR  OF  MICHAEL.  345 

exasperation  and  violence  of  the  pagan  chiefs  towards  their  sub- 
jects generally,  as  well  as  the  church,  from  the  defeat  of  Maxen- 
tius  to  the  final  fall  of  paganism.  Maximin,  the  emperor  of  Asia 
Minor,  Syria,  and  Egypt,  suspended  the  persecution  on  the  fall 
of  Maxentius,  and  the  grant  of  toleration  to  the  church  by  Con- 
stantino and  Licinius,  but  soon  renewed  it  with  far  greater  vio- 
lence, and  an  avowed  purpose  of  exterminating  the  church  from 
his  dominions.  Persons  of  distinction  were  appointed  to  the  pa- 
gan priesthood  in  all  the  cities,  the  rites  renewed  with  pomp  and 
zeal,  and  the  magistrates  and  people  given  to  understand  that 
they  could  do  nothing  more  acceptable  to  the  prince,  than  to  as- 
sail and  slaughter  the  Christians.  They  accordingly  plotted 
against  them  in  extraordinary  ways,  suborning  the  most  profligate 
accusers,  and  traducing  them  by  the  most  infamous  imputations, 
by  which  the  magistrates  of  all  the  provinces  were  induced  to 
assail  and  persecute  them  with  greater  fury  than  at  any  former 
period.^ 

Licinius,  who  succeeded  him  in  the  empire  of  the  east,  in  319 
renewed  the  war  on  them,  and  continued  it  with  the  utmost  viru- 
lence till  his  fall  in  323.  He  began  by  encoiu'aging  false  accu- 
sations against  the  bishops  ;  then  enacted  arbitrary  laws  prohib- 
iting them  from  assembling  in  synods,  entering  each  other's 
churches,  or  communicating  with  one  another,  in  order  that  he 
might  generate  pretexts  for  putting  them  to  death.  He  banished 
all  who  held  the  Christian  faith  from  the  palace,  and  from  his 
retinue,  and  drove  them  into  exile  ;  and  threatened  death  to  all 
who  should  thereafter  profess  Christianity.  He  prohibited  men 
from  assembling  with  women  in  churches  for  worship,  and  the 
bishops  from  giving  religious  instruction  to  any  but  their  own 
sex,  ordered  that  their  assembhes  should  be  held  only  without 
the  gates  of  the  cities,  and  in  the  open  air ;  and  forbade  their 
supplying  those  with  food  who  were  imprisoned,  and  left  without 
any  provision  by  the  magistrates  :^  and  at  length  proceeded  to 
open  and  direct  war  on  the  ministers  and  members  of  the  churches, 
subjecting  them  to  the  most  horrible  tortures,  slaughtering  them 
in  great  numbers,  and  endeavoring  to  exterminate  them  from  his 
dominions.  Multitudes  fled  from  the  cities  to  the  country,  to 
deserts,  and  to  mountains.  Some  escaped  to  the  western  em- 
pire, and  the  whole  would  have  soon  shrunk  from  sight,  or  been 
devoured,  had  not  Constantine  interposed  and  extricated  them 
from  his  power. ^ 

'  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ix.  c.  4,  5,  6.     Pagi  Crit.  in  Baron,  an.  314,  no.  vi.-X. 
«  Eusebii  de  Vita  Const,  lib.  i.  c.  51-56.         '  Ibid.  lib.  ii.  c.  1,  2. 

44 


346  THE  WAR  OF  MICHAEL. 

Mr.  Brightman,  Mr,  Daubuz,  Mr.  Elliott,  and  others,  regard 
the  war  symbolized  by  the  strife  of  the  angels,  as  the  war  be- 
tween Constantino  and  Maxentius,  Maximin  and  Licinius  for  po- 
litical power.  But  that  is  against  analogy.  It  is  to  make  the 
symbolic  act,  and  that  which  it  represents,  of  the  same  species. 
As  all  the  subordinates  of  Michael  were  good  angels,  it  assumes 
that  all  the  subordinates  of  Constantino  were  Christians  and  wit- 
nesses for  God,  which  is  notoriously  unauthorized.  There  is  not 
the  slightest  reason  to  suppose  that  his  army  was  essentially  less 
heathen,  than  was  that  of  Maxentius,  Maximin,  or  Licinius.  His 
attempts  at  a  subsequent  period  to  christianize  his  soldiers,  show 
that  they  were  at  least  generally  idolaters.^ 

The  supposition  that  it  was  a  struggle  for  political  power,  is 
inconsistent  with  the  means  by  which  the  triumph  was  gained, 
the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  their  testimony,  and  with  the  nature 
of  the  victory,  which  was  not  an  elevation  of  the  conqueror  to  po- 
litical power,  but  the  dejection  of  the  vanquished,  and  preclusion 
from  a  further  accusation  of  the  witnesses.  Exemption  from  per- 
secution, and  freedom  of  faith  and  worship,  were  the  blessings 
which  believers  attained,  and  which  were  the  ground  of  their  ex- 
pectation, that  the  gospel  would  thereafter  prevail  without  obstruc- 
tion, and  the  reign  of  Christ  soon  commence,  when  the  whole 
world  should  become  subject  to  his  dominion. 

Dean  Woodhouse  regards  the  war  as  a  strife  in  heaven  be- 
tween good  and  evil  angels,  at  the  period  of  Satan's  expulsion 
from  his  primeval  seat.  But  that  is  to  disregard  the  symbolic 
nature  of  the  vision,  and  treat  it  as  history,  instead  of  prophecy. 
If  the  prophetic  meaning  may  be  excluded  from  this  passage, 
what  reason  can  be  given  that  it  may  not  from  every  other  ? 

Vitringa  regards  Michael  as  symbolizing  Christ,  But  that  is 
against  the  law  of  analogy,  no  creature,  however  exalted,  having 
any  adequacy  to  represent  him.  It  is  in  contradiction  also  to  the 
representation,  that  the  victors  overcame  their  enemies  by  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb.  How  can  Christ  be  said  to  overcome  in  tiie 
same  manner  as  the  witnesses  through  faith  in  his  blood  ?  The 
supposition  of  Cocceius  that  Michael  is  Christ  himself,  is  equally 
obnoxious  to  this  objection. 

Mr.  Faber  regards  the  war  as  a  strife  between  the  teachers  of 
the  Latin  church,  and  pure  and  Protestant  teachers,  during  the 
twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years.  But  that  interpretation  is  found- 
ed on  the  assumption  that  heaven,  in  which  the  symbol  war  was 
exhibited,  denotes  the  visible  church,  which  is  not  only  without 

^  Eusebii  de  Vita  Const,  lib.  iv.  c.  19,  20, 21. 


THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN.  347 

authority,  but  implies  that  heaven  and  the  warriors,  so  far  as  the 
latter  constitute  the  visible  church,  are  the  same,  which  is  to  con- 
found the  mere  scene  of  the  conflict  with  the  agents.  It  implies, 
also,  that  the  ejection  of  Satan  and  his  angels  from  heaven,  de- 
notes an  excommunication  of  all  the  priests  whom  they  repre- 
sent, from  the  visible  church.  But  no  such  universal  excommu- 
nication of  priests  from  the  Catholic  church  has  taken  place,  or 
can.  As  in  that  communion  the  power  of  excommunication  is 
held  exclusively  by  the  priests  themselves,  it- is  not  possible  that 
by  any  process  conformable  with  their  canons,  an  excommuni- 
cation should  be  pronounced  on  every  individual  of  their  order. 

It  is  in  contradiction  also  to  the  prophecy,  to  exhibit  the  period 
of  the  war  as  the  same  as  the  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years  of 
the  woman's  residence  in  seclusion,  as  the  ejection  of  Satan  and 
his  angels  from  heaven  is  expressly  represented  as  anterior  to 
her  flight  into  the  desert. 


SECTION  XXX. 

CHAPTER    XII.     13-17. 

THE    FLIGHT    OF    THE    WOMAN. 


And  when  the  dragon  saw  that  he  was  cast  down  to  the  earth,  he 
followed  after  the  woman  who  brought  forth  the  male  child.  And  two 
wings  of  the  great  eagle  were  given  to  the  woman,  that  she  should 
fly  into  the  desert,  into  her  place,  where  she  is  nourished  there  a 
time,  and  times,  and  half  a  time,  from  the  face  of  the  serpent. 

And  the  serpent  cast  from  his  mouth,  after  the  woman,  water  as  a 
river,  that  it  might  cause  her  to  be  carried  away.  And  the  earth 
helped  the  woman,  and  the  earth  opened  his  mouth  and  drank  the 
river  which  the  dragon  cast  out  of  its  mouth.  And  the  dragon  was 
angry  with  the  woman  and  went  on  to  make  war  with  the  rest  of  her 
seed,  who  keep  the  commandments  of  God,  and  hold  the  testimony 
of  Jesus. 

The  dragon  who  followed  the  woman,  symbolizes  the  pagan 
priests  and  their  abettors,  who  had  been  defeated  in  their  attempt 
to  maintain  their  idol-worship,  and  fallen  into  the  minority.  Their 
following  after  her,  denotes  their  attempt  to  join  her  society  by 
a  profession  of  Christianity. 


348  THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN. 

The  serpent  that  cast  from  its  mouth  water,  was  not  the  devil 
who  fought  with  Michael,  the  symbol  of  the  pagan  party,  but  the 
monster  dragon  of  seven  heads,  as  is  apparent  from  that  act,  which 
is  appropriate  to  an  inhabitant  of  water,  but  not  to  an  angelic 
being.  It  represents  the  rulers  of  the  Roman  empire,  therefore, 
from  the  elevation  of  Constantine  to  the  fall  of  the  western  dy- 
nasty, and  thence,  the  eastern  dynasty  to  its  extinction  by  the 
Turks. 

The  gift  to  the  woman  of  the  wings  of  an  eagle,  denotes  thai 
aids  were  granted  her  in  her  flight,  that  were  supernatural,  and 
peculiarly  suited  to  bear  her  above  the  dangers  with  which  she 
was  threatened  by  the  intrusion  of  pagans  into  the  church.  As 
the  wings  were  an  addition  to  her  body,  and  became  apart  of  her 
nature,  they  denote  not  an  exterior  instrument,  but  a  gift  that 
formed  a  part  of  herself,  and  an  intellectual  and  spiritual  gift, 
therefore,  knowledge,  faith,  wisdom,  constancy,  love,  by  which 
she  was  borne  above  the  torrent  of  false  doctrines,  superstitious 
rites  and  idolatries,  in  which  the  dragon  endeavored  to  ingulf 
her. 

As  it  is  appropriate  to  a  monster  dragon,  wliich  may  be  sup- 
posed, like  behemoth,  to  draw  up  Jordan  into  its  mouth,  to  repre- 
sent it  as  ejecting  water  as  a  river  to  bear  away  the  woman,  so 
the  means  employed  by  the  rulers  of  the  Roman  empire,  symbol- 
ized by  the  dragon,  to  destroy  the  true  people  of  God,  must  be 
supposed  to  be  such  as  were  appropriate  to  their  peculiar  charac- 
ter as  usurpers  of  his  rights,  and  patrons  of  superstition  and  idol- 
atry. And  they  were  doubtless  the  flood  of  false  doctrines, 
and  superstitious  and  impious  rites,  introduced  by  Constantine 
and  his  successors. 

The  earth  which  absorbed  that  flood,  denotes  the  people  gen- 
erally of  the  empire,  who  eagerly  embraced  the  religion  thus  adul- 
terated to  their  taste,  and  by  their  conspicuous  and  exulting  re- 
ception of  it,  occupied  the  attention  of  the  rulers,  and  allowed  the 
small  body  of  dissentients  to  escape  from  their  sight. 

Her  retreat  into  her  place  from  the  face  of  the  serpent,  denotes 
that  the  scene  of  her  residence  was  unknown  to  the  rulers.  The 
anger  of  the  serpent  indicates  their  continued  disposition  to  de- 
stroy her,  if  in  their  power;  while  its  going  on  to  make  war  with 
such  of  her  seed  as  had  not  retreated  to  the  desert,  denotes  that 
they  continued,  after  her  disappearance,  to  persecute  the  isolated 
individuals  that  from  time  to  time  dissented  from  the  corrupt 
church,  and  professed  the  pure  faith. 

The  time,  times,  and  half  a  time,  the  period  of  the  Avoman's 


THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN.  349 

residence  in  the  desert,  denotes  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years, 
a  time  being  a  year  or  three  hundred  and  sixty  days,  times  two 
years  or  seven  hundred  and  twenty  days,  and  half  a  time  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty,  which  united  are  twelve  hundred  and  sixty. 

These  symbols  then  indicate,  that  on  the  usurpation  by  Con- 
stantine  and  his  successors  of  authority  over  the  church,  the  pure 
worshippers  began  to  dissent,  withdraw  from  the  public  assem- 
blies, and  worship  apart ;  that  on  the  nationalization  of  the  church, 
a  crowd  of  pagans  soon  entered  it ;  that  a  vast  torrent  of  corrupt 
doctrines  and  rites,  was  introduced  into  its  faith  and  worship  by 
the  emperors  and  their  subordinates,  that  threatened  to  bear  away 
the  true  people  of  God,  from  the  impulse  of  which  they  were  sig- 
nally protected  ;  that  a  body  of  them  retired  from  the  observation 
of  the  rulers,  into  a  place  where  they  were  sustained  through  a 
long  period  ;  and  that  the  rulers  continued  to  wreak  their  mahce 
on  the  individuals,  who  rose  from  time  to  time  in  the  empire,  and 
dissented  from  the  popular  faith. 

These  symbohzations  had  a  signal  fulfilment  in  the  dissentients 
from  the  nationalized  church,  and  the  conduct  of  the  rulers  to- 
wards them,  from  Constanline  through  a  long  succession  of  ages. 

I.  On  the  nationalization  of  the  church  by  that  emperor,  a  vast 
body  of  pagans  entered  it,  and  verified  the  prediction  that  after 
being  cast  to  the  earth  they  should  follow  the  woman. 

Eusebius  asserts,  "  That  two  great  evils  distinguished  the 
reign  of  Constantino,  the  violence  of  profligate  and  insatiable 
men,  who  harassed  every  condition  of  life  ;  and  the  indescriba- 
ble hypocrisy  of  those  who  entered  the  church,  and  deceitfully 
assumed  the  Christian  name."  And  he  represents  their  promis- 
cuous assumption  of  the  new  religion,  as  occasioned  in  a  large 
degree,  by  the  emperor's  treating  the  mere  profession  as  a  satis- 
factory proof  of  a  genuine  conversion.^ 

It  was  natural  that  crowds  of  the  worldly  should  be  drawn  to 
the  church,  when  Christianity  became  the  religion  of  the  court, 
and  a  profession  of  it  a  passport  to  office  and  honor.  As  he 
employed  it,  as  he  openly  avowed,  as  a  means  of  strengthening 
the  state,  and  for  that  reason  required  all  denominations  to  con- 
form to  the  establishment,  he  was  naturally  inchned  to  encourage 
the  profession,  although  no  indications  appeared  of  a  sincere  con- 
viction of  its  truth.  He  offered  it  as  a  reason  in  his  letter  to 
Alexander,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  and  to  Arius,  of  his  urging 
them  to  lay  aside  their  differences,  and  return  to  peace,  that  the 
two  great  objects  at  which  he  aimed  in  his  administration  were, 

^  Eusebii  de  Vita  Const,  lib.  iv.  c.  54. 


350  THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN. 

first,  to  unite  all  nations  in  the  profession  of  the  same  religion  ; 
and  next,  to  relieve  the  empire  from  the  evils  with  which  it  was 
oppressed  as  with  a  disease  ;  that  the  first  he  endeavored  to  ac- 
complish by  persuasion,  the  other  by  arms  ;  knowing  that  if  he 
could  produce  a  unanimity  of  all  the  worshippers  of  God  accord- 
ing to  his  wishes,  the  administration  of  the  government  would 
then  generate  changes  conformable  to  their  harmonious  and  pious 
designs  ;^  and  he  asserted  that  the  barbarous  nations,  who  had 
been  turned  from  idols  to  the  faith  by  his  instrumentality,  "paid 
their  worship  to  God  through  fear  of  him."^ 

II.  Constanline  and  his  successors  introduced  a  flood  of  false 
doctrines,  superstitions,  and  idolatries,  into  the  church,  which 
were  incompatible  with  a  pure  worship,  and  swept  all  who  yield- 
ed to  their  impulse,  to  the  gulf  of  apostasy.  Such  were  the  ven- 
eration of  the  cross,  and  ascription  to  it  of  miraculous  powers, 
the  homage  of  relics,  the  invocation  of  saints,  the  conversion  of 
religion  into  crortreous  ceremonies,  the  encouraijement  of  celiba- 
cy,  and  the  arrogation  of  the  throne  and  prerogatives  of  God  by 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  rulers.  These  falsehoods,  follies,  and  im- 
pieties, introduced  or  adopted  by  the  emperors,  encouraged  by 
their  example,  sanctioned  by  their  laws,  and  enforced  by  the 
penalties  of  excommunication,  imprisonment,  the  forfeiture  of 
civil  rights,  banishment,  and  death,  came  armed  with  an  over- 
powering force  to  all  who  were  not  fortified  against  them  by  the 
special  aids  of  the  divine  Spirit,  and  like  a  resistless  torrent,  bore 
away  the  great  mass  of  the  church. 

III.  There  were  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century,  and 
in  the  ages  that  followed,  many  who  disapproved  of  the  interfer- 
ence of  the  civil  rulers  with  the  church,  and  rejected  the  errors, 
supei'stitions,  and  idolatries,  with  which  they  debased  its  doctrines 
and  worship. 

Even  Hosius  of  Corduba,  who  had  not  only  approved  of  the 
arrogation  of  authority  over  the  church  by  Constantine,  and  coun- 
selled him,  it  is  represented,  in  all  the  great  measures  of  his 
administration  over  it, — in  giving  it  a  civil  establishment,  in 
summoning  the  synod  of  Nica^a,  in  enforcing  its  decrees,  in  the 
deposition  and  banishment  of  the  Arian  bishops, — and  who  still 
regarded  the  emperor  as  having  the  right  to  assemble  councils, 
and  as  bound  to  execute  the  canons  of  the  orthodox ;  yet  when 
that  power  was  turned  by  Constantius  against  him  and  his  fel- 
low-bishops, who  held  tlie  faith  of  Nicaea,  and  iu  favor  of  the 

'  Eusebii  de  Vita  Const,  lib.  ii.  c.  G5. 
^  Sozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  c.  28. 


THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN.  351 

unprincipled  and  plotting  Arians,  remonstrated  against  it  as  a 
most  unjustifiable  usurpation,  and  dangerous  encroachment  on 
the  prerogatives  of  the  hierarchy.  When  solicited  to  subscribe 
the  sentence  denounced  against  Athanasius  by  the  synod  of  Mi- 
lan, and  threatened  like  all  who  should  refuse  to  unite  in  iiis 
condemnation  with  disgrace,  chains,  exile,  and  confiscation  of 
goods,  he  wrote  to  Constantius  :  "  I  became  a  confessor  first  in 
the  persecution  by  your  grandfather  Maximian,  and  if  you  per- 
secute me,  am  now  ready  to  endure  any  thing,  rather  than  shed 
innocent  blood,  and  betray  the  truth.  I  do  not  approve  of  your 
writing  and  threatening  such  things.  Refrain  from  it.  Do  not 
cherish  the  doctrines  of  Arius.  Do  not  listen  to  the  eastern  bish- 
ops, nor  trust  the  partisans  of  Ursacius  and  Valens  ;  for  what 
they  say  they  utter  not  so  much  out  of  disapprobation  of  Atha- 
nasius, as  to  advance  their  own  party."  "  Why  do  you  still  lis- 
ten to  those  detractors,  Valens  and  Ursacius,  who  have  confessed, 
by  penance  and  in  writing,  that  they  were  guilty  of  a  calumny?" 
"  But  if  they  complain  of  violence,  and  acknowledge  it  to  be  un- 
justifiable, and  it  is  disapproved  by  you,  then  refrain  from  com- 
pulsion, and  neither  write,  nor  send  officers,  but  release  those 
who  are  exiled,  that  that  party  may  not,  while  you  are  com- 
plaining of  violence,  commit  still  greater  outrages.  For  what  of 
that  kind  was  done  by  Constans  ?  What  bishop  was  exiled  ? 
Who  interfered  with  ecclesiastical  decisions  ?  What  courtier  of 
his  compelled  subscription  to  an  accusation  of  any  one,  that  the 
adherents  of  Valens  should  talk  thus  ?  Refrain  then,  I  beseech 
you,  and  remember  that  you- are  a  mortal ;  fear  the  day  of  judg- 
ment ;  keep  yourself  pure  in  order  to  it.  Do  not  intrude 
yourself  into  ecclesiastical  affairs,  nor  counsel  us  in  regard  to 
them  ;  but  rather  learn  them  from  us.  God  has  intrusted  to 
you  the  empire.  He  has  committed  the  affairs  of  the  church  to 
us  ;  and  as  he  who  usurps  your  government  contravenes  the  ordi- 
nance of  God,  so  beware  lest  you  become  obnoxious  to  a  heavier 
accusation  by  grasping  a  jurisdiction  over  the  church."^ 

But  his  remonstrances  were  unsuccessful.  Though  dismissed 
on  that  occasion,  he  was  soon  recalled  from  Spain,  held  in  exile 
a  year,  and  at  length  at  the  council  of  Sirmium  in  357,  when 
near  his  hundredth  year,  scourged  until  overcome,  he  reluctantly 
assented  to  the  Arian  creed .^ 

Similar  sentiments  were  uttered  on  the  same  occasion  by  Eu- 
sebius,  bishop  of  VerccUi,  who  denounced  the  emperor  to  his 
face  as  a  false  Christian,  and  the  bishops  of  his  party  as  Anti- 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  iii.  pp.  243-24G.  ^  Labbei  Coiicil.  torn.  iii.  p.  255. 


352  THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN. 

chrisls,  and  had  a  like  experience  of  the  power  which  the  hier- 
archy had  assisted  the  emperors  in  assuming.  Dragged  from  the 
synod  by  the  Arians,  he  was  first  cruelly  beaten,  next  drawn  up 
and  down  a  stone  stairway,  until  the  steps  were  wet  with  his 
blood,  then  scourged  again  to  the  verge  of  death,  and  at  length 
dispatched  into  exile.  The  attempts  of  the  emperor  to  compel 
Liberius,  bishop  of  Rome,  to  unite  in  condemning  Athanasius 
without  a  trial,  were  resisted  by  him  likewise,  and  his  obstinacy 
rewarded  by  deposition  and  banishment.^  Hilary  of  Poictiers 
also  addressed  to  him  similar  entreaties  and  remonstrances. 
"  Your  beneficent  nature,  happy  Augustus,  is  in  harmony  with 
a  benign  will.  We  are  confident  therefore  that  we  shall  easily 
obtain  what  we  solicit.  We  implore  not  merely  with  words,  but 
with  tears,  that  the  Catholic  churches  may  no  longer  be  sub- 
jected to  the  most  cruel  injuries,  and  overwhelmed  with  insults 
and  persecution  by  our  brethren.  Let  your  clemency  provide 
by  an  edict,  that  the  judges  to  whom  the  administration  of  the 
provinces  is  intrusted,  to  whom  the  care  of  civil  affairs  alone 
should  belong,  should  abstain  from  the  supervision  of  religion, 
and  not  presume  to  usurp  the  cognizance  of  the  causes  of  the 
clergy,  and  harass  and  crush  the  innocent  with  threats,  violence, 
terrors,  and  every  species  of  injury.  Your  wisdom  is  aware  that 
it  is  not  becoming,  it  is  not  right,  by  force  to  compel  the  un- 
willing and  reluctant  to  submit  and  addict  themselves  to  those 
who  are  perpetually  scattering  the  corrupt  seeds  of  false  doc- 
trine. Wherefore  as  you  endeavor  to  sway  the  empire  by  wise 
counsels,  watch  and  provide  that  all  whom  you  rule  may  enjoy 
the  sweets  of  liberty.  The  agitated  can  never  be  tranquillized, 
the  alienated  can  never  be  united  in  harmony,  unless  every  one 
is  freed  from  servile  subjection,  and  allowed  to  enjoy  perfect 
liberty.  Assuredly  the  voice  ought  to  be  heard  by  your  clem- 
ency, of  those  who  cry,  '  I  am  a  Catholic,  I  am  unwilling  to  be 
a  heretic,  I  am  a  Christian,  not  an  Arian ;  and  it  is  better  for  me 
to  die  in  this  world,  than  contaminate  the  pure  virginity  of  the 
truth  through  the  tyrannical  power  of  any  individual.'  It  should 
be  equally  apparent  to  your  sanctity,  august  monarch,  that  they 
who  fear  God  and  his  judgment,  ought  not  to  be  contaminated 
by  execrable  blasphemies,  but  have  power  to  follow  their  bish- 
ops and  superiors,  who  preserve  the  laws  of  love  inviolate,  and 
desire  sincere  and  perpetual  peace.  It  is  not  reasonable,  it  is 
not  possible,  that  elements  that  are  repugnant  should  concur, 
that  things  that  are  unlike  should  unite,  true  and  false  intermin- 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  iii.  p.  250. 


THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN.  353 

gle,  light  and  darkness  become  confounded.  If,  therefore,  as  we 
confidently  hope  and  believe,  these  considerations  move  your 
innate  goodness,  order  that  the  prefects  of  the  provinces  should 
not  yield  countenance  nor  aid  to  these  tyrannical  heretics.  Let 
your  lenity  allow  the  people  to  hear  those  teachers  whom  they 
desire,  to  celebrate  the  sacraments,  and  offer  prayers  for  your 
safety  and  happiness,  with  whomsoever  they  approve  and  choose."* 

It  is  apparent  that  these  complaints  and  entreaties,  were  ex- 
pressive, not  merely  of  his  own  sentiments,  but  those  of  a  great 
body  of  the  clergy  and  people.  But  he,  like  his  associates,  found 
the  despot  inexorable,  and  was  driven  into  exile,  and  becoming 
alarmed  and  exasperated  by  the  outrages  to  which  the  orthodox 
were  subjected,  soon  resorted  to  reproaches  and  denunciations, 
instead  of  intreaties  and  flattery,  and  endeavored  by  public  and 
violent  appeals,  to  arouse  the  church  to  a  sense  of  its  danger 
from  such  a  remorseless  tyranny.^  This  terrible  experience  of 
the  lawlessness  of  the  power,  which  these  bishops  had  sanctioned 
Constantino  in  assuming,  and  exercising  over  dissentients  from 
the  Catholic  church,  was  adapted  to  open  their  eyes  to  its  inter- 
ference with  the  rights  of  God,  and  the  danger  with  which  it 
threatened  the  truth,  and  lead  them  to  a  realization  of  the  infinite 
distance  between  the  incommunicable  prerogatives  of  the  Al- 
mighty, and  the  legitimate  claims  of  human  rulers.  And  it  un- 
doubtedly gave  birth  to  a  similar  conviction  in  multitudes. 

In  like  manner,  during  the  reign  of  Valens,  Basil  and  a  great 
crowd  of  the  orthodox  clergy  and  people  throughout  the  east,  re- 
sisted the  mandates,  and  remonstrated  against  the  persecutions 
of  that  tyrant.^ 

But  the  tyranny  of  the  emperors  was  not  the  only  cause  of 
dissatisfaction  and  remonstrance.  It  is  apparent  from  the  canons 
of  the  councils,  and  the  imperial  laws  prohibiting  religious  as- 
semblies separately  from  the  nationalized  church,  that  tliere  were 
many  dissentients  from  the  established  faith  and  worship.  Thus 
the  fifth  canon  of  the  council  of  Antioch,  held  in  341,  by  which 
presbyters  and  deacons  were  forbidden  to  secede  Irom  the 
church,  hold  separate  assemblies,  and  disregard  the  commands 
of  the  bishops,  indicates  that  there  were  persons  of  those  orders 
who  dissented  from  the  established  hierarchy,  threw  off  allegi- 
ance to  it,  and  held  assemblies  by  themselves.*     The  acts  of  the 

>  Hilarii  Lib.  adv.  Constant,  pp.  1218,  1219,  1220. 

'  Hilarii  Lib.  contra  Constant,  pp.  1237-1260. 

^  Theodoriti  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  iv.  c.  16-19.     BasUii  Epist.  308,  torn.  iii.  p.  300. 

*  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  ii.  p.  1310. 

45 


354  THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN. 

council  of  Gangra,  held  some  twelve  or  fifteen  years  later,  show 
that  the  superstitions  and  idolatries  of  the  church,  were  among 
the  causes  of  those  secessions.  The  bishops  allege  that  they 
assembled  and  enacted  their  canons,  in  order  to  arrest  secessions 
that  were  taking  place  from  the  house  of  God  and  from  the 
church ;  and  represent  that  by  many  the  church  and  its  services 
were  disapproved,  that  separate  assemblies  were  held,  other  dis- 
courses delivered,  and  different  doctrines  taught,  new  customs 
introduced  in  respect  to  dress,  fasting,  and  celibacy,  the  basilicas 
of  martyrs  denounced,  and  their  worshippers  and  worship  re- 
proached, and  that  all  who  rejected  the  authority  of  the  church 
usurped  the  right  of  private  judgment,  and  formed  a  system  of 
their  own.  They  therefore  assembled  to  condemn  and  excom- 
municate all  such  ;  and  by  their  fifth  canon  denounced  an  anath- 
ema on  whoever  should  teach  that  the  house  of  God  and  the 
assemblies  in  it  were  to  be  despised  ;  by  their  sixth,  on  whoever 
should  hold  a  religious  assembly  apart  from  the  church,  and  cel- 
ebrate religious  services  separately,  without  the  presence  of  a 
presbyter  according  to  the  order  of  the  bishop  ;  and  by  their 
twentieth,  on  whoever  should  censure  the  assemblies  in  the  tem- 
ples of  the  martyrs,  and  the  services  celebrated  in  them  in  their 
commemoration.^ 

The  edicts  of  the  emperors  present  similar  indications  that 
there  were  many  who  dissented  from  the  Catholic  church  soon 
after  its  nationalization.  Thus  Gratian  in  378  :  "  In  order  that 
heretical  assemblies  might  be  discontinued,  we  on  a  former  oc- 
casion," probably  in  376,  "  ordained  that  the  places,  whether  in 
the  city  or  country,  in  which  religious  assemblies  are  held,  and 
altars  erected  under  a  false  pretence  of  rehgion,  separately  from 
the  church  with  which  we  commune,  should  be  confiscated  ;  so 
that  should  they  be  allowed  either  through  the  connivance  of  the 
judges,  or  the  audacity  of  the  ungodly,  it  shall  in  either  case  be 
at  their  peril. "^ 

The  edicts  of  the  hke  nature  issued  by  Theodosius  the  Great, 
many  of  which  are  seen  in  the  Theodosian  code,  are  represented 
by  Arcadius  in  a  law  of  396  as  very  numerous.  "  Let  no  one 
of  the  heretics,  who  have  heretofore  been  embraced  in  the  innu- 
merable laws  of  our  august  sire,  dare  to  gather  a  forbidden  as- 
sembly, and  contaminate  the  mysteries  of  the  Almighty  with  a 
profane  mind,  neither  in  public  nor  in  private,  neither  secretly 
nor  openly.     Let  no  one  venture  to  appropriate  to  himself  tho 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn  ii.  pp.  1098-1102. 
"  Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  v.  1.  4. 


THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN.  355 

tide  of  bishop  or  the  ecclesiastical  order,  and  use  their  holy- 
names  wiih  polluted  lips.'" 

Who  were  denoted  by  the  term  heretics,  was  defined  in  an- 
other edict  of  the  same  year.  "  They  are  included  under  the 
term  heretics,  and  ought  to  be  subjected  to  the  laws  enacted 
against  them,  who  are  convicted  of  deviating  from  the  doctrine 
and  practice  of  the  church  for  a  light  reason."^ 

Of  the  sixty-six  laws  of  the  fifth  title  of  the  sixteenth  book, 
issued  within  one  hundred  and  ten  years  of  the  council  of  Nicsea, 
a  great  portion  are  thus  directed  against  dissentients  from  the 
Catholic  church  ;  prohibiting  their  assemblies,  debarring  them 
from  the  ordination  of  ministers,  confiscating  their  houses  of 
worship,  exiling  them  from  the  cities,  and  threatening  them  with 
death ;  and  present  the  most  indubitable  evidence  that  many  in 
every  part  of  the  empire,  who  could  not  be  branded  with  the  op- 
probrious names  of  Manicheans,  Montanists,  Donatists,  Euno- 
raians,  or  even  Novatians,  withdrew  from  the  estabhshment 
from  disapprobation  of  its  doctrines  and  rites,  and  worshipped 
apart. 

But  a  public  protest,  that  drew  the  attention  of  the  clergy 
throughout  the  empire  against  the  superstitions  and  idolatries 
with  which  the  church  had  become  debased,  was  made  towards 
the  close  of  the  fourth  century,  by  Vigilantius,  a  native  of  Lyons, 
in  Gaul,  and  a  presbyter  at  first  at  Barcelona,  Spain,  and  subse- 
quently in  Italy,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Cottian  Alps.  In  his 
preaching,  and  in  a  volume,  he  assailed  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy, 
monkery,  excessive  fasting,  and  pilgrimages  to  Jerusalem,  as 
vices  instead  of  virtues  ;  rebuked  the  debasement  of  the  worship 
of  the  church  by  the  introduction  of  pagan  rites,  and  denounced 
the  veneration  of  relics  and  the  invocation  of  saints  as  idolatrous. 
Jerome  represents  him  as  denying  that  the  sepulchres  of  the 
martyrs  should  be  venerated,  condemning  vigils  at  their  graves, 
pronouncing  celibacy  a  heresy  and  school  of  licentiousness,  and 
charging  the  worshippers  of  the  martyrs  with  idolatry,  and 
quotes  the  following  from  the  volume  of  Vigilantius  as  his  proof. 
"  What  need  is  there,  not  only  to  honor  with  such  respect,  but 
even  to  adore,  I  know  not  what,  which  carrying  in  a  little  box 
you  worship  ?  Why  do  you  in  adoration  kiss  dust  covered  with 
a  linen  cloth  1     We  see  a  rite,  almost  pagan,  introduced  into  the 

'  Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  v.  1.  26. 

^  Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  v.  1.  28.  Iliereticorum  vocabulo  continentur,  et  latis 
adversus  eos  sanctionibiis  debent  subcumbero  qui  vel  levi  argumento  a  judicio  Cath- 
oiiciE  religionis  et  traniite  detecti  fueriiit  deviare. 


356  THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN. 

church  under  the  pretence  of  rehgion.  While  the  sun  still 
shines,  a  muhitude  of  wax  tapers  are  lighted,  and  wherever  there 
is  a  hltle  fine  dust,  I  know  not  what,  in  a  small  vase  covered 
with  fine  linen,  they  kiss  in  adoration.  Men  oifer  great  homage 
of  this  kind  to  the  blessed  mailyrs,  and  imagine  that  they  are 
illustrated  by  cheap  tapers,  whom  the  Lamb,  who  is  in  the  midst 
of  the  throne,  irradiates  with  the  full  splendor  of  his  majesty. 
Do  the  souls  of  the  martyrs  delight  in  their  own  ashes,  and  al- 
ways hover  over  them,  lest,  if  absent,  they  might  be  unable  to 
hear  when  a  sinner  approaches  to  invoke  their  aid  V'^  And  these 
sentiments,  it  is  apparent  from  Jerome's  representations,  were 
neither  peculiar  to  Vigilantius,  nor  had  their  origin  with  him,  but 
were  common  to  many  in  that  part  of  Italy,  and  had  long  pre- 
vailed. He  says  it  is  reported  that  he  had  bishops  as  his  coad- 
jutors, if  they  could  be  called  bishops,  who  would  not  ordain 
deacons  unless  they  were  already  married  ;  having  no  faith  in 
the  chastity  of  celibates,  and  ostentatiously  showing  hew  holily 
their  clergy  lived,  whom  the  people  universally  would  suspect  of 
vice,  and  regard  as  unfit  to  administer  the  sacraments,  if  they 
were  not  seen  to  have  wives  .and  children.^  That  marriage  was 
thus -made  a  requisite  to  admission  to  the  sacred  ofiice,  indicates 
that  the  practice  had  long  prevailed,  and  implies,  therefore,  that 
it  was  not  originated  by  Vigilantius,  who  had  then  resided  in  that 
region  but  a  short  period.  His  reprobation  of  the  homage  of 
relics,  and  the  invocation  of  saints,  was,  doubtless,  likewise  ex- 
pressive of  views  long  entertained  by  large  numbers  in  that  part 
of  Italy,  and  in  Gaul  and  Spain,  rather  than  introduced  by  him- 
self. It  is  known  that  the  clergy  of  Spain  and  the  south  of 
Gaul  disapproved  of  the  homage  of  pictures  and  images  in  the 
beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  from  the  canon  of  the  council 
of  Eliberis  prohibiting  their  exhibition  in  churches,  lest  they 
should  be  made  objects  of  adoration.^  And  aversion  to  them  is 
known  to  have  continued,  both  in  the  south  of  France  and  the 
west  of  Italy,  at  the  foot  of  the  Alps,  for  several  ages,  from  the 
removal  of  the  images  from  the  church  of  Marseilles,  by  Serenus, 
towards  the  close  of  the  sixth  century  ;  from  the  denunciation 
of  their  worship  by  tiie  clergy  of  the  kingdom,  after  the  second 
council  of  Nica^a  in  787  ;  and  from  their  condemnation  by 
Claude,  of  Turin,  in  the  following  age.  These  facts  indicate 
that  there  was  in  that  part  of  Europe  a  continued  succession  of 
teachers  and  worshippers,  who  publicly  disapproved  of  those  er- 

'  Hieronymi  Epist.  59,  60,  adv.  Vigilant.  '  Ibid.  60. 

*  Labbei  Coucil.  torn.  ii.  c.  36,  p.  11. 


THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN.  357 

rors  and  idolatries  from  the  period  of  their  introduction  into  the 
church  through  a  long  succession  of  ages. 

IV.  The  rulers  endeavored  to  tempt  and  compel  all  dissen- 
tients to  submit  to  their  usurped  authority,  and  concur  in  the  na- 
tionalized faith  and  worship. 

Constantino  adopted  the  church  as  an  auxiliary  to  the  state  ; 
endeavored  through  the  whole  of  his  administration  to  brinsr  all 
who  assumed  the  Christian  name  to  enter  the  establishment,  un- 
der the  persuasion  that  it  would  contribute  to  the  strength  and 
permanence  of  the  government ;  and  enjoined  that  policy  on  his 
sons.  Sozomen  relates  that  when  near  the  close  of  life,  he  ad- 
vised Constantius  to  assemble  a  council  for  the  purpose  of  recon- 
ciling the  Arians  and  orthodox,  \uider  the  conviction  that  the  em- 
pire would  have  no  prosperity  unless  God  was  worshipped  in  the 
same  manner  by  all.^  And  it  was,  undoubtedly,  from  the  adop- 
tion of  that  theory  as  politicians,  and  not  from  any  religious  mo- 
tives, that  Constantius  and  Valens  especially,  and  prol)ably,  in  a 
large  degree,  Gratian  and  Theodosius  the  Great,  strove  by  edicts 
and  penalties  to  force  all  who  adopted  the  Christian  name  to 
conform  to  the  nationalized  church.  It  was  with  that  view  that 
Constantius  summoned  the  councils  of  Rimini,  Sirmium,  Ser- 
dica,  Seleucia,  and  others  ;  Theodosius  that  of  Constantinople, 
and  other  emperors  those  that  followed.^  'i'liey  accordingly,  for 
a  long  series  of  ages,  employed  every  species  of  influence  in 
their  power,  to  allure  or  drive  the  whole  population  into  the 
Catholic  communion.  Constanline  gave  peculiar  privileges  to 
the  churches  of  the  establishment,  restoring  their  edifices  and 
other  property,  protecting  them  in  their  worship,  contributing  to 
their  funds  from  the  national  treasury,  and  allowing  them  to  re- 
ceive bequests  from  the  dying.  He  conferred  important  immu- 
nities and  powers  on  the  nationalized  clergy,  exempting  them 
from  the  burthens  of  civil  offices,  releasing  their  property  from 
taxation,  and  constftuting  them  judges  in  the  civil  as  well  as  ec- 
clesiastical causes  in  which  they  were  interested,  incorporating 
their  canons  with  the  civil  laws  of  the  empire,  and  causing  them 
to  be  enforced  by  the  magistrates  and  soldiers ;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  discouraged  and  obstructed  all  dissentients,  by  de- 
barring them  from  the  immunities  granted  to  the  Catholics,  con- 
fiscating their  churches,  prohibiting  their  assemblies,  and  driving 
the  intractable  into  exile.  Those  laws  were  continued  by  Con- 
stantius and  Valens,  and  enforced  on  a  vast  scale  throughout  the 

'  Sozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  iii.  c.  19.     Eusebii  Hist.  EccI  lib.  x.  c.  .5,  p.  320. 
^  Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lih.  ii.  c.  37.     Sozomeiii  Hist,  Eccl.  lib.  viL  c.  12. 


358  THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN. 

empire  ;  many  of  the  orthodox  bishops  were  deposed  and  ban- 
ished ;  the  inferior  clergy  driven  in  crowds  from  their  churches, 
and  great  numbers  of  both  sexes,  who  refused  to  conform  to  the 
Arian  faith,  put  to  the  torture.^ 

That  pohcy  was  continued  by  Gratian,  Theodosius,  Arcadius, 
and  Honorius,  in  favor  of  the  orthodox.  By  an  edict  issued  in 
380,  the  toleration  which  had  before  been  granted  to  pagans  was 
withdrawn,  and  the  whole  population  of  the  empire  required  to 
embrace  the  Catholic  failh.  "  We  will  that  all  people  who  live 
under  our  sway,  practise  the  religion  which  was  communicated 
by  the  holy  apostle  Peter  to  the  Romans,  which  it  is  known  is 
followed  by  the  pontiff  Damasus,  and  Peter,  the  bishop  of  Alex- 
andria, a  man  of  apostolic  sanctity  ;  '  that  we  should  believe  ac- 
cording to  the  apostolic  rule  and  evangelical  doctrine,  in  the  one 
deity  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  equal  majes- 
ty, and  in  a  holy  Trinity.'  Following  this  law  we  command  all 
to  embrace  the  name  of  Catholic  Christians,  but  condemn  all 
others  as  delirious,  to  bear  the  infamy  of  an  heretical  doctrine  ; 
their  assemblies  are  not  to  be  denominated  churches,  and  they 
are  to  be  punished,  first  by  the  divine  vengeance,  and  then  by 
inflictions  by  us,  which  we  undertake  at  God's  command."^ 

They  ordered  all  the  churches  to  be  delivered  to  the  bishops 
who  held  that  doctrine.  "  We  order  all  the  churches  to  be  im- 
mediately delivered  to  the  bishops  who  confess  the  Father,  the 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  one  majesty  and  power,  of  the  same 
excellence  and  glory,  making  not  a  dissonance  by  a  sacrilegious 
division,  but  a  trinity  in  order,  an  assertion  of  persons,  and  a  one- 
ness of  deity.  Who  they  are,  will  be  determined  by  their  com- 
munion with  the  bishops  of  Constantinople,  Alexandria,  Laodi- 
cea.  Tarsus,  Iconium,  Antioch,  Cassarea,  Mitilene,  Nyssa,  Scy- 
thia,  and  Marcionopolis.  They  must  be  permitted  to  obtain  the 
Catholic  churches  who  are  of  the  communion  and  fellowship  of 
approved  priests.  But  all  who  dissent  from  their  failh  who  are 
here  enumerated,  are  to  be  expelled  from  the  churches  as  mani- 
fest heretics,  nor  is  any  power  hereafter  to  be  allowed  them  of 
obtaining  the  pontifical  churches,  that  the  priesthood  of  the  Ni- 
cene  faith  may  continue  pure.  Nor  after  the  plain  expressions 
of  this  edict  shall  any  place  be  allowed  to  malignant  crafl."-^ 

In  other  edicts  they  prohibited  heretics  from  holding  separate 
assemblies,  confiscated  their  houses  of  worship,  forbid  their  en- 
tertahiing  opinions  differing  from  those  of  the   Catholic  church, 

*  Socratis  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  c.  27.     Sozomeni  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  iv.  c.  8. 

*  Codicis  Theod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  i.  1.  2.  '  Ibid.  1  3. 


THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN.  359 

denied  them  the  liberty  of  ordaining  ministers  of  their  churches, 
debarred  some  classes  from  the  right  of  inheriting  and  bequeath- 
ing property,  banished  them  from  the  cities,  excluded  them  from 
communion  with  the  Catholics  and  the  society  of  the  reputable, 
and  endeavored  by  rewards  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  by 
disabilities,  dishonors,  obloquy,  confiscation,  exile,  torture,  and 
all  the  enginery  of  a  despotic  and  cruel  government,  through  a 
long  tract  of  ages,  to  force  the  whole  population  to  submit  to 
their  assumption  of  authority  over  religion,  and  unite  in  their 
idolatries.  Every  class  of  objectors  was  mercilessly  crushed, 
and  all  hberty  of  worship  and  freedom  of  opinion  extinguished. 

V.  As  it  was  by  spiritual  aids  that  the  true  worshippers  were 
enabled  to  resist  the  temptations  and  force  by  which  the  rulers 
endeavored  to  constrain  them  to  apostasy,  and  to  fly  to  the  desert, 
no  specific  record  of  those  aids  is  to  be  sought  on  the  page  of  his- 
tory. The  only  evidence  that  we  can  ask  or  possess,  that  they 
were  conferred,  is  presented  in  the  fact  that  a  body  of  dissentients 
from  the  corrupt  church  were  in  a  later  age  found  in  a  secluded 
scene,  who  had  survived  the  endeavors  of  the  rulers  of  the  fourth, 
fifth,  sixth,  and  following  centuries,  to  compel  all  their  subjects  to 
conformity,  and  who  have  continued  to  maintain  a  separate  exist- 
ence, and  offer  an  unidolatrous  worship  to  the  present  time. 

And  such  a  body  were  the  Waldenses  inhabiting  the  eastern 
valleys  of  the  Cottian  Alps.  They  are  known  from  the  testimony 
of  cotemporary  Catholics  and  their  own  authors  to  have  existed 
there  as  early  as  the  eleventh  century.  It  was  then,  and  is  now, 
claimed  by  themselves,  and  admitted  by  their  enemies,  that  they 
had  subsisted  there  from  a  much  earlier  age.  They  were  a 
Christian  church,  having  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
tament, regarding  them  as  a  revelation  from  God,  and  making 
them  the  rule  of  their  faith  ;  having  a  ministry  of  their  own, 
holding  religious  assemblies,  professing  and  teaching  the  doc- 
trines of  the  gospel,  and  celebrating  the  sacraments. 

They  were  dissentients  from  the  Catholic  church,  rejecting  its 
usurping  priesthood,  its  superstitious  rites,  its  false  doctrines, 
and  its  idolatrous  worship. 

They  were  distinguished  for  the  simplicity  and  purity  of  their 
lives.  It  was  asserted  by  them,  and  repeated  by  the  Catholics, 
that  they  were  induced  to  retreat  to  the  secluded  valleys  which 
they  inhabit,  to  escape  the  despotism  of  the  rulers  and  the  cor- 
ruptions and  tyranny  of  the  church,  soon  after  its  nationalization 
by  Constantino.  They  have  continued  to  subsist  there  to  the 
present  time,  as  a  separate  and  evangelical  church. 


360  THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN. 

They  have  been  preserved  there  and  nourished  by  extra- 
ordinary means.  Of  the  dangers  and  necessities  to  which 
they  were  exposed,  during  the  first  five  hundred  years  of  their 
seclusion,  we  have  httle  knowledge.  Their  preservation,  howev- 
er, through  such  a  period,  while  the  whole  church  without  re- 
lapsed into  idolatry,  and  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  rulers  were 
exhausting  every  art  to  drive  dissentients  from  existence,  is  itself 
little  less  than  a  miracle.  It  could  have  been  only  by  the  pecu- 
liar care  of  providence,  that  they  were  not  overwhelmed  by  their 
implacable  foes.  It  was  by  the  special  gifts  of  the  divine  Spirit, 
that  a  succession  of  pious  and  faithful  teachers  and  believers 
was  continued  through  so  many  ages.  But  after  they  drew  the 
attention  of  the  persecuting  civil  and  ecclesiastical  rulers,  the  care 
of  God  was  very  conspicuous  in  their  preservation.  Great  num- 
bers were,  from  age  to  age,  seized,  imprisoned,  and  put  to  death 
as  martyrs.  Tiiey  were  repeatedly  threatened  with  extermina- 
tion by  the  sword,  and  reduced  by  slaughter,  famine,  and  the  suf- 
ferings incident  to  persecution  and  war,  to  a  small  body.  They 
were  obstructed  by  the  intrusion  of  Catholics  on  their  lands,  and 
compelled  to  migrate  to  other  countries.  Both  insidious  and  vio- 
lent endeavors  were  made  for  several  centuries,  to  draw  them  to 
apostasy.  Their  children  were  often  stolen,  and  borne  away  to 
be  educated  in  the  Catholic  faith.  They  were  driven  from  their 
valleys  in  1686,  and  scattered  through  Germany,  Switzerland, 
and  France,  and  kept  in  banishment  several  years.  Yet  against 
all  these  enemies,  and  through  all  these  dangers,  while  all  other 
nations  and  churches  underwent  the  greatest  vicissitudes  and  rev- 
olutions, they  continued  tiie  same  people  and  the  same  church, 
holding  the  same  faitii,  offering  the  same  worship,  maintaining  the 
same  simplicity  and  purity  of  manners,  and  uttering  the  same  tes- 
timony against  the  nationalized  and  apostate  hierarchies.  They 
were  succored  by  the  pious  of  France,  Switzerland,  and  Ger- 
many, through  a  long  tract  of  dark  and  stormy  ages  ;  at  later  pe- 
riods the  Protestant  princes  repeatedly  interposed  with  their  per- 
secutors in  their  behalf,  and  the  benevolent  of  Great  Britain  and 
other  countries  have  often  sent  them  liberal  contributions  to  re- 
lieve their  necessities,  and  aid  them  in  educating  their  children, 
and  supporting  their  pastors. 

VI.  The  population  at  large,  received  the  corrupt  religion  dic- 
tated by  the  emperors,  with  the  utmost  eagerness,  and  by  their 
conspicuous  and  exulting  acquiescence,  which  seemed  to  be  uni- 
versal, may  naturally  have  rendered  it  easier  for  remote  churches 
and  obscure  individuals  who  dissented,  to  escape  the  notice  of 


THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN.  361 

the  rulers,  and  retire  into  unfrequented  regions  like  the  valleys 
of  the  Alps,  where,  shielded  from  observation,  they  might  for  ages 
maintain  a  pure  worship  without  obstruction. 

That  the  assumptions  of  authority  by  Constantine,  and  the  false 
doctrines  and  idolatrous  rites  introduced  under  his  patronage, 
were  approved  by  the  great  body  of  the  bishops  and  church,  is 
indisputable  from  the  universal  exultation  at  his  triumph  over 
Maxentius  and  Licinius,  and  the  legalization  of  Christianity.  Not 
a  single  conspicuous  prelate  appears  to  have  objected  to  that 
measure.  They  attended  the  synods  which  he  assembled  ;  they 
received  their  canons  and  decrees,  and  accommodated  themselves 
in  their  organization  under  patriarchs,  exarchs,  and  metropolitans, 
and  in  their  discipline,  to  the  civil  government  as  remodelled  by 
him,  assumed  the  civil  offices  to  which  he  appointed  them,  ac- 
cepted the  provisions  he  made  for  their  support,  and  availed  them- 
selves of  the  civil  magistrate  to  enforce  their  discipline.  Not  a 
murmur  of  dissent  from  his  arrogalions  was  pubhcly  heard,  till 
the  power  they  had  sanctioned  him  in  assuming  was  turned 
against  themselves  ;  and  though,  as  corruptions  were  introduced 
into  the  church  during  the  fourth  century,  many  became  dissat- 
isfied, withdrew,  and  formed  separate  assemblies,  yet  nearly  the 
whole  church  eagerly  embraced,  and  zealously  sustained  the  na- 
tional establishment  in  all  its  errors  of  doctrine  and  debasement 
of  worship,  as  is  clearly  indicated  by  the  canons  of  the  councils 
and  laws  of  the  emperors  against  dissentients,  and  demonstrated 
by  the  representations  of  the  ecclesiastical  writers  of  the  period. 
Thus  Jerome  treats  Vigilantius  and  his  coadjutors  as  singular  in 
their  disapprobation  of  the  homage  of  relics  and  invocation  of 
saints,  and  as  thereby  condemning  the  whole  eastern  and  western 
church.  "  He  regrets  that  the  relics  of  the  martyrs  are  covered 
with  a  precious  veil,  and  not  tied  up  in  rags  or  hair  cloth,  or 
thrown  to  a  dung-hill,  that  the  drunken  Vigilantius  alone  might 
adore  them.  Are  we,  therefore,  guilty  of  sacrilege  when  we  en- 
ter the  basilicas  of  the  apostles  ?  Was  the  emperor  Constantius 
sacrilegious,  who  transferred  the  sacred  relics  of  Andrew,  Luke, 
and  Timothy  to  Constantinople,  at  which  the  demons  roared,  and 
those  possessing  Vigilantius  confessed  that  they  were  conscious 
of  their  presence  ?  Is  the  present  emperor  Arcadius  to  be  called 
sacrilegious,  who  transferred  the  bones  of  the  blessed  Samuel, 
long  after  his  death,  from  Judea  to  Thrace  ?  Are  all  the  bishops 
to  be  regarded  not  only  as  sacrilegious,  but  as  besotted,  who 
carry  about  light  dust  and  loose  ashes  in  silk  and  a  golden  vase  ? 
Are  the  people  of  all  the  churches  fools,  who  hastened  to  meet 

46 


362  THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN. 

the  sacred  relics  with  as  great  joy  as  though  ihey  saw  the  pro- 
phet present  and  hving,  so  that  crowds  swarmed  along  the  whole 
way  from  Palestine  to  Chalcedon,  and  resounded  the  praises  of 
Christ  with  one  voice  ?" 

"  Did  the  bishop  of  Rome  do  wrong,  who  offered  sacrifices 
over  those  dead  men,  Peter  and  Paul  according  to  us — according 
to  you,  a  little  vile  dust ;  and  regarded  their  tombs  as  Christ's  al- 
tars ?  And  do  the  bishops  not  only  of  one  city,  but  of  the  whole 
world  err,  who,  despising  the  huckster  Vigilantius,  enter  the  ba- 
silicas of  the  dead,  in  which  vile  dust  and  ashes,  I  know  not  what, 
lie  wrapped  in  fine  linen,  so  polluted  that  they  taint  every  thing, 
and  are  like  the  sepulchres  of  the  Phai'isees  that  were  whitened 
without,  while  within  they  were  defiled  with  ashes  and  all  impu- 
rities ?"i 

It  is  apparent  from  these  representations,  that  the  great  body 
of  the  clergy  and  church,  embraced  the  debasing  superstitions  and 
idolatries  introduced  and  patronized  by  the  emperors,  with  an  ea- 
gerness and  passion  conformable  to  the  representation  that  the 
earth  opened  a  vast  chasm  and  swallowed  the  flood  cast  from  the 
mouth  of  the  dragon. 

VII.  The  existence  in  the  valleys  of  the  Alps,  of  a  body  of  dis- 
senters from  the  Catholic  church,  appears  to  have  been  unknown 
for  several  ages,  to  the  persecuting  civil  and  ecclesiastical  ru- 
lers. 

The  earliest  persecution  to  death  in  their  vicinity,  of  dissen- 
tients holding  their  doctrines,  of  which  the  writers  of  the  middle 
ages  give  us  any  notice,  was  at  Orleans  in  France,  in  1017,  and 
they  are  represented  by  Glaber  as  then  recently  detected,  although 
he  admits  that  they  had  existed  for  a  long  period.  Others  were 
soon  discovered  in  that  part  of  Gaul,  in  Lombardy,  and  in  Pied- 
mont, and  many  ere  the  close  of  the  century  put  to  death.  In  the 
following  age  the  Waldenses  seem  first  to  have  attracted  the  no- 
tice of  prelates  and  princes  ;  Peter  Waldo,  who  in  1160  began 
to  teach  their  doctrines  at  Lyons,  and  spread  them  over  the  whole 
of  Catholic  Europe,  being  a  Waldensian  by  birth  as  well  as  in 
faith  ;  but  it  was  not  till  the  opening  of  the  next  century  that  they 
became  the  objects  of  an  exterminating  persecution.  They  are 
spoken  of  by  all  the  writers  of  the  period,  as  then  recently  discov- 
ered. 

From  these  representations,  and  from  their  not  having  been  as 
sailed  at  an  earlier  period,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  from 
their  extreme  seclusion,  from  the  wars  with  which  Italy  was  oc- 

*  Hieronymi  Epist.  59,  60,  adv.  Vigilant.  "  Baronii  Annul,  anno  1017, 


THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN.  363 

cupied,  and  from  the  incessant  strifes  with  which  the  church  it- 
self was  rent,  they  for  a  succession  of  ages  escaped  the  notice 
both  of  the  popes  and  the  secular  princes. 

VIII.  And  finally,  after  the  retreat  of  the  woman  into  the  des- 
ert, the  usurping  civil  rulers,  for  a  series  of  ages,  persecuted  such 
individuals  as  they  found  rejecting  the  errors  of  the  nationalized 
church,  and  maintaining  an  evangelical  faith  and  worship. 

The  edicts  of  the  emperors  against  dissentients  from  the  na- 
tionalized church,  from  Constantino  to  the  commencement  of  the 
twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years,  were  continued  by  their  succes- 
sors, and  other  laws  enacted  for  the  purpose  of  repressing  seces- 
sion, and  forcing  the  alienated  back  into  the  Catholic  communion  ; 
and  on  the  public  withdrawment  of  the  Paulicians  in  Armenia, 
organization  as  a  separate  church,  and  formal  testimony  against 
the  false  doctrines  and  idolatrous  rites  of  the  Catholics,  a  merci- 
less war  on  them  was  commenced,  and  continued  at  intervals  in 
Armenia,  Thrace,  Bulgaria,  Bohemia,  and  Germany,  for  more 
than  five  hundred  years,  during  which  great  numbers  were  put 
to  death.  And  on  their  migration  in  the  beginning  of  the  elev- 
enth century,  into  Italy  and  Gaul,  they,  with  the  Albigenses  and 
other  rejectors  of  the  Catholic  system,  were,  at  the  instance  of 
the  bishops,  assailed  by  the  civil  rulers,  and  persecuted  in  every 
part  of  Italy,  in  Gaul,  in  Spain,  in  the  Netherlands,  in  Germany, 
in  Bohemia,  in  Hungary,  and  in  England,  with  few  intermissions, 
through  the  ages  that  followed  to  the  close  of  the  eigliteenth  cen- 
tury. Not  a  single  body  of  evangelical  believers  withdrew  from 
the  nationalized  church,  or  rejected  its  false  doctrines,  professed 
a  scriptural  faith,  oifcred  a  pure  worship,  and  testified  against  tlie 
errors  of  the  apostate  communions,  that  was  not  assailed  by  the 
wild  beast,  and  forced  to  seal  their  witness  to  the  truth  with  their 
blood. 

Mr.  Brightman,  Mr.  Daubuz,  Mr.  Elliott,  and  others,  regard 
the  dragon  that  cast  water  from  its  mouth,  not  as  the  seven-head- 
ed dragon,  but  as  the  apostate  angel  who  fought  with  Michael. 
But  that  is  to  disregard  the  ascription  to  it  of  an  action  appropri- 
ate only  to  a  monster  animal  like  a  dragon  inhabiting  water.  That 
error  led  to  a  misapplication  also  of  the  other  parts  of  the  symbol. 
Thus  Mr.  Daubuz  and  Mr.  Elliott  exhibit  the  two  wings  that 
were  given  to  the  woman,  as  denoting  tiie  eastern  and  western 
empires.  But  as  the  dragon  represents  the  rulers  of  the  empire, 
the  empire  itself  cannot  be  the  wings  by  which  she  escaped  from 
their  presence.  It  is  against  analogy.  There  is  no  resemblance 
between  two  divisions  of  an  empire  which  are  immovable,  and 


364  THE  FLIGHT  OF  THE  WOMAN. 

wings  which  are  the  instruments  of  motion  from  one  part  of  it  to 
another-  An  empire  sustains  no  such  relation  to  a  person  resi- 
ding in  it,  as  wings  would  to  one  to  whom  they  were  so  united  as 
to  constitute  a  part  of  himself.  The  fancy  is  preposterous  in  oth- 
er relations  also,  as  well  as  in  contradiction  to  the  symbol.  If 
the  two  divisions  of  the  empire  were  the  wings,  whither  was  the 
woman  borne  ?  Did  the  empires  convey  her  out  of  their  territo- 
ries ?  How  is  the  supposition  that  the  empires  were  the  wings, 
to  be  reconciled  with  the  representation,  that  the  earth  opened 
its  mouth,  and  drank  the  river  cast  forth  by  tlie  dragon  ?  Did  the 
wings  swallow  the  torrent,  as  well  as  bear  the  woman  above  it  ? 
Mr.  Mede's  exposition,  who  regarded  the  eagle  as  the  empire,  and 
the  wings  as  emperors  of  the  eastern  and  western  divisions,  is 
similarly  objectionable. 

Mr.  Brightman,  Mr.  Daubuz,  Mr.  Elliott,  and  others,  exhibit 
the  water  which  the  dragon  cast  from  its  mouth,  as  the  Gothic 
nations  by  which  the  western  empire  was  devastated  and  con- 
quered. But  those  nations  were  not  cast  from  the  mouth  of  the 
rulers  of  the  empire.  They  entered  the  empire  against  the  wish- 
es, and  with  few  exceptions,  the  strenuous  exertions  of  both  the 
emperors,  and  army,  and  the  people.  Their  objects  were  plunder 
and  conquest,  not  the  seduction  or  compulsion  of  pure  worship- 
pers of  God  to  apostasy.  Their  invasions  were  represented  by 
the  symbols  of  the  first  four  trumpets,  and  exhibited  as  commis- 
sioned to  devastate  and  overthrow  the  western  Roman  empire, 
not  to  force  pure  worshippers  and  faithful  witnesses  to  conform 
to  the  idolatrous  nationalized  church. 

Vitringa's  exposition,  who  regarded  the  waters  as  symbolizing 
the  Saracens,  is  open  to  similar  objections.  They  were  not  cast 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Roman  rulers.  They  are  represented  by 
the  locusts  of  the  fifth  trumpet,  and  as  commissioned  to  chastise 
an  apostate  church,  not  to  draw  pure  worshippers  to  apos- 
tasy. 

Mr.  Faber  exhibits  the  water,  as  the  European  infidels  of  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  But  that  is  in  contradic- 
tion to  his  assumption  that  the  seven-headed  dragon,  that  cast 
them  from  its  mouth,  is  the  symbol  of  all  the  unfaithful  members 
of  the  visible  church.  It  was  not  the  apostate  church,  that  cast 
on  the  world  the  vast  host  of  infidels  and  atheists  of  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries.  As  multitudes  of  those  infidels 
were  members  of  the  visible  church,  the  supposition  that  they 
were  cast  forth  from  it,  implies  that  all  infidels  of  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries,  were  excommunicated  from  the  visible 


THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST.  365 

church.  But  no  such  excommunication  of  infidels  has  taken 
place.  It  was  during  the  flight  of  the  woman,  moreover,  that  the 
water  was  cast  after  her,  not  near  the  close  of  her  residence  of 
twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years  in  the  desert. 


SECTION  XXXI. 

CHAPTERS    XII.  18,    XIII.  I-IO. 

THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST. 

And  I  stood  on  the  shore  of  the  sea.  And  I  saw  a  wild  beast  as- 
cending from  the  sea,  having  ten  horns  and  seven  heads,  and  on  its 
horns  ten  diadems,  and  on  its  heads  names  of  blasphemy.  And  the 
wild  beast  which  I  saw  was  like  a  panther,  and  its  feet  as  of  a  bear, 
and  its  mouth  as  the  mouth  of  a  lion.  And  the  dragon  gave  it  its 
power,  and  its  throne,  and  great  authority.  And  I  saw  one  of  its 
heads  was,  as  it  were,  wounded  to  death  ;  and  its  death-wound  was 
healed.  And  the  whole  earth  wondered  after  the  wild  beast.  And 
they  worshipped  the  dragon  because  it  gave  authority  to  the  wild 
beast.  And  they  worshipped  the  wild  beast,  saying,  Who  is  like  to 
the  wild  beast  ?  and,  Who  is  able  to  war  with  it  ?  And  a  mouth  was 
given  to  it  speaking  great  things  and  blasphemies  ;  and  power  was 
given  to  it  to  do  [it]  forty-two  months.  And  it  opened  its  mouth  in 
blasphemy  against  God,  to  blaspheme  his  name,  and  his  tabernacle, 
and  those  who  dwell  in  heaven.  And  it  was  given  to  it  to  make  war 
with  the  saints,  and  to  vanquish  them.  And  authority  was  given  to 
it  over  every  tribe,  and  people,  and  tongue,  and  nation.  And  all  will 
worship  it  who  dwell  on  the  earth,  whose  name  is  not  written  in  the 
book  of  life  of  the  Lamb,  who  was  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world.  If  any  one  has  an  ear,  let  him  hear.  If  any  one  leads  into 
captivity,  into  captivity  he  goes.  If  any  one  slays  with  the  sword, 
by  the  sword  he  must  be  slain.  Here  is  the  patience  and  the  faith 
of  the  saints. 

This  wild  beast  is  a  symbol  of  rulers,  manifestly,  from  the 
badges  of  royalty  ascribed  to  it,  crowns,  a  throne,  and  great  au- 
thority ;  and  a  symbol  of  a  body  of  cotemporaneous  rulers,  obvi- 
ously, from  its  ten  horns  with  their  diadems,  which  are  represen- 
tative of  separate  dynasties  ;  and  from  its  authority  over  every 
tribe,  and  people,  and  tongue,  and  nation  on  the  earth,  which  had 
been  subject  to  the  throne  surrendered  to  it  by  the  dragon.  It  is 
the  representative  of  a  combination  of  dynasties,  that  succeed  to 


366  THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST. 

a  dominion  formerly  exercised  by  the  dragon,  as  is  seen  from  its 
receiving  from  it  its  power,  and  its  throne,  and  great  authority. 
That  is  indicated  also  by  the  seven  heads,  which  are  representa- 
tives of  the  same  species  of  supreme  rulers  that  are  symbolized 
by  the  heads  of  the  dragon.  The  disappearance  of  the  diadems 
from  the  heads,  and  elevation  to  the  horns,  denote  that  those  or- 
ders of  supreme  rulers  which  the  heads  represented,  are  no  longer 
in  authority,  but  are  succeeded  by  the  new  dynasties  denoted  by 
the  horns.  Its  body  was  like  a  panther's,  its  feet  like  a  bear's, 
and  its  mouth  like  a  lion's  ;  a  union  of  the  utmost  agility  with  the 
greatest  strength  to  grasp  and  appetite  to  devour,  indicating  a 
combination  of  aggressive,  bloody,  cruel,  and  insatiable  tyrants. 

That  one  of  its  heads  was  wounded  to  death  with  a  sword,  and 
its  death-wound  healed,  denotes  that  one  of  the  successions  of  ru- 
lers symbolized  by  its  heads,  was  cut  off  by  the  sword  and  su- 
persed.ed  by  one  of  the  others  for  a  time,  but  subsequently  re- 
stored. That  the  whole  earth  wondered  after  it,  indicates  that  the 
whole  population  of  the  ten  kingdoms  regarded  the  monarchs 
whom  it  represents,  with  admiration  and  awe,  and  eulogized  the 
heroism  of  their  exploits,  and  the  wisdom  of  their  rule.  That 
they  worshipped  the  dragon  because  it  gave  it  authority,  implies 
tliat  they  regarded  important  rights  which  their  monarchs  exer- 
cised as  derived  from  the  dragon,  and  as  legitimately  assumed  by 
them,  because  they  had  been  arrogated  and  exercised  by  that  an- 
cient rule.  That  their  ascriptions  to  the  dragon  and  the  wild 
beast  of  that  authority  as  legitimate  was  a  worship,  denotes  that 
the  assumption  of  that  authority  was  an  arrogation  of  the  prerog- 
atives of  God,  and  their  assent  to  it,  therefore,  the  ascription  to 
them  of  a  homage  that  is  due  only  to  him.  That  arrogation  of 
his  rights  is  denoted  also  by  the  names  of  blasphemy  on  the  heads 
of  the  dragon,  and  by  the  detraction  of  his  name,  which  the  wild 
beast  is  represented  as  uttering.  His  name  is  descriptive  of  what 
he  is  in  his  relations  to  his  creatures,  and  is  the  symbol  thence 
of  his  peculiar  attributes  and  prerogatives,  as  is  seen  in  the  an- 
nunciation of  Christ  in  the  first  vision,  his  proclamation  of  his  at- 
tributes, and  their  celebration  by  the  living  creatures  and  elders, 
as  the  ground  of  his  right  to  reign.  The  wild  beast's  blasphemy 
of  his  name,  therefore,  is  its  denial  to  him  of  his  peculiar  prerog- 
atives, and  arrogation  of  them  as  its  own. 

The  tabernacle  was  the  tent  or  edifice  erected  by  the  command 
of  God,  as  the  place  of  offering  the  worship  which  he  enjoined  ; 
the  inner  sanctuary  symbolizing  the  heaven  in  which  he  mani- 
fests himself,  and  receives  the  homage  of  the  spirits  of  the  just 


THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST.  367 

made  perfect  and  the  angelic  hosts  ;  the  main  sanctuary  in  which 
worship  was  offered  by  the  priests  and  Levites,  symbohzing  the 
places  in  which  the  ministers  of  the  Christian  church  offer  ac- 
ceptable worship.  To  calumniate  his  tabernacle,  therefore,  was 
to  ascribe  to  it  something  inconsistent  with  its  office,  and  detract- 
ing from  his  prerogatives,  such  as  the  representation  of  the 
heavens  as  the  residence  of  other  beings  besides  him,  who  are  en- 
titled to  worship;  and  the  exhibition  of  edifices  in  which  idols  are 
placed,  and  an  homage  paid  to  other  beings  and  objects  besides 
God,  as  the  proper  places  of  the  worship  which  the  church  on 
earth  is  to  offer  him.  To  blaspheme  those  who  dwell  in  heaven, 
was,  in  like  manner,  to  calumniate  them  by  representing  them  as 
arrogating  the  attributes  and  prerogatives  of  God,  by  desiring  and 
receiving  a  religious  homage  that  is  due  only  to  him.  That  it 
was  given  to  it  to  make  war  with  the  saints  and  to  vanquish 
them,  denotes  that  it  persecuted  the  pure  worshippers  who  re- 
fused submission  to  its  sacrilegious  usurpations,  and  inflicted  on 
them  what  evils  it  pleased.  That  it  had  authority  over  every 
tribe,  and  people,  and  tongue,  and  nation,  and  was  worshipped  by 
all  except  the  true  people  of  God,  signifies  that  all  the  nations 
over  which  the  monarchies  which  it  represents  reigned,  submit- 
ted to  their  arrogations  of  the  rights  of  God,  and  that  none  dis- 
sented, and  acknowledged,  and  vindicated  the  prerogatives  of  the 
Almighty,  but  those  whose  names  were  written  in  the  Lamb's 
book  of  life. 

That  he  that  led  into  captivity  was  himself  to  become  a  cap- 
tive, and  he  that  slew  with  the  sword  must  himself  be  slain,  indi- 
cates that  those  who  should  attempt  to  defend  themselves  by  force 
from  the  religious  tyranny  of  those  usurping  monarchies,  would 
be  defeated  in  their  endeavors,  and  involve  themselves  in  the  very 
evils  they  attempted  to  escape.  That  here  is  the  faith  and  the 
patience  of  the  saints,  denotes  that  the  true  witnesses  of  God  were 
not,  in  fulfilling  their  office,  to  resort  to  violence  for  deliverance 
from  those  persecuting  tyrants,  and  the  maintenance  or  acquisi- 
tion of  religious  freedom,  but  in  meekness  and  faith  content  them- 
selves with  uttering  their  testimony  for  God,  which  he  has  prom- 
ised to  make  a  devouring  fire  to  their  enemies. 

The  period  of  the  wild  beast's  triumpiiant  authority,  like 
that  of  the  woman  in  the  desert,  and  the  witnesses,  was  to 
be  forty-two  months,  the  symbol  of  twelve  hundred  and  sixty 
years. 

All  these  characteristics  meet  most  conspicuously  in  the  Gothic 
rulers,  who  established  governments  in  the  western  Roman  em- 


368  THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST. 

pire  during  the  fifth  century,  and  their  successors  and  subjects  to 
the  present  time. 

The  enaergence  of  the  wild  beast  from  the  sea  is  not  to  be  re- 
garded as  having  been  accomphshed  in  a  moment,  or  a  brief  space, 
but  as  having  occupied  such  a  period  as  would  naturally  be  re- 
quired for  the  invasion  of  the  empire  by  many  separate  tribes  mi- 
grating from  vast  distances,  engaging  in  numerous  wars,  and  final- 
ly, after  victory,  establishing  new  and  independent  governments. 
Nor  are  the  chiefs  who  ruled  them  after  the  conquest  of  parts  of 
the  empire,  to  be  considered  as  having  assumed  that  relation  in 
which  they  are  symbolized  by  the  horns,  while  they  remained, 
as  in  France  for  a  long  period,  in  subordination  to  Rome.  They 
emerged  from  the  sea  as  dynasties,  when,  by  concession  or  victo- 
ry, they  became  rulers  of  portions  of  the  empire  in  independence 
of  that  power.  The  institution  of  the  horns,  therefore,  took  place  at 
different  periods,  and  they  were  those  that  subsisted  when  the 
conquest  of  the  empire  was  completed,  and  the  imperial  power 
extinguished. 

I.  On  the  conquest  of  Italy  and  termination  of  the  imperial 
rule  by  the  deposition  of  Augustulus  in  476,  the  barbarians  held 
possession  of  the  whole  western  empire,  with  the  exception  of  a 
part  of  Britain  and  Gaul,  and  were  distributed  under  ten  kingly 
governments. 

1.  The  Vandals  who  entered  Gaul  in  406,  soon  passed  into 
Spain,  and  after  occupying  a  part  of  that  province  for  near  twen- 
ty years,  in  427  invaded  Africa,  wrested  it  from  the  Romans,  in- 
stituted an  independent  kingdom,  and  ruled  it  until  the  year 
533.^ 

2.  The  Suevi,  who  at  the  same  period  passed  through  Gaul, 
conquered  Gallicia  in  Spain,  and  maintained  a  kingdom  till  585, 
a  space  of  one  hundred  and  seventy-seven  years.^ 

3.  The  Visigoths  in  408  passed  from  Italy  into  the  south  of 
France,  and  maintained  a  kingdom  there  till  the  year  506,  when 
being  driven  by  the  Franks  into  Spain,  they  wrested  a  part  of  it 
from  the  Suevi,  and  in  585  extended  their  sway  over  the  whole 
peninsula.^ 

4.  Of  the  Alans  who  entered  Gaul  in  407,  a  part  advanced  in- 
to Spain,  and  after  sustaining  a  separate  government  eight  or  nine 
years,  were  conquered  by  the  Vandals  and  Suevi,   and    passed 

'  Procopii  Hist.  Vandal,  lib.  i.  pp.  10-14,  Edit.  Grot.     Jornandis  de  Reb.  Get.  c 
31,  33,  pp.  G55-G57,  Edit.  Grot.     Isidor.  Chron.  pp.  716,  732-737,  Edit.  Grot. 
*  Jornand.  de  Reb.  Get.  c.  44,  p.  675.     Isidor.  pp.  716,  731,  737-740. 
»  Isidor.  Chron.  pp.  716,  719,  731,  732. 


THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST.  369 

with  the  former  into  Africa.  Another  body  settled  on  the  Rhine, 
and  in  440  in  Valencia.  They  repulsed  Attila  from  Orleans,  their 
capital,  on  his  invasion  of  Gaul  in  451,  and  were  stationed  in  the 
centre  of  the  army  by  which  he  was  defeated  at  the  battle  of 
Chalons.^  On  his  invasion  of  their  territory  in  453,  they  were 
supported  by  the  Goths,  and  gained  another  victory.^  In  464 
they  invaded  Italy,  and  laid  waste  Liguria.^  Clovis  extended  his 
conquests  over  their  territory,  as  far  as  the  Liger  in  485,^  but 
they  continued  to  subsist  as  a  separate  people  till  507,  and 
perhaps  a  few  years  later,  when  they  were  conquered  by  the 
Franks.^ 

5.  The  Burgundians  established  themselves  in  Belgic  Gaul  in 
407.  After  a  few  years  they  obtained  possession  of  Savoy,  and 
subsequently  of  Gaul  on  the  Rhone,  and  maintained  a  separate 
kingdom  till  524,  when  they  were  conquered  by  the  Franks.  On 
the  division  of  the  French  kingdom,  it  again  became  a  separate 
state,  and  continued  such  most  of  the  time  for  several  centu- 
ries.^ 

6.  The  Franks  also  entered  Gaul  in  407,  and  witliin  a  few 
years  established  a  kingdom  on  the  Rhine,  which  they  continued 
to  maintain  and  advance,  until  in  the  sixth  century  it  extended 
over  the  whole  territory  embraced  in  modern  France,^ 

7.  Britain  revolted  from  the  Romans  in  the  year  407  or  408, 
and  was  never  recovered  by  them.^  The  Saxons  invaded  the 
island  in  449,  and  soon  after  established  a  kingdom  which  grad- 
ually extended  over  the  whole  of  the  territory  which  had  been 
held  by  the  Romans,  and  subsisted  through  several  centu- 
ries.^ 

8.  The  Ostrogoths  who  were  under  the  dominion  of  Attila,  on 
the  dissolution  of  his  empire  settled  in  Pannonia,"^  and  contin- 
ued to  hold  their  share  of  that  province  and  a  part  of  Illyria,  till 
their  invasion  of  Italy,  and  conquest  of  the  Heruli  in  493.* 

^  Jomand.  c.  31,  p.  655.     Isidor.  Chron.  pp.  716,  731,  733. 

^  Jornand.  de  Reb.  Get.  c.31,p.  655,  c.  37,  p.  665,  c.  43,  p.  674.  Isidor.  pp.  731, 
732,  737. 

'  Sigonii  Hist,  de  Occid.  Imp.  lib.  xiv.  *  Ibid.  lib.  xv. 

*  Gibbon's  Hist.  chap,  xxxviii.  ®  Ibid. 

'  Agatbiffi  Hist.  lib.  i.  p.  530-532,  Edit.  Grot. 

"  Procopii  Hist.  Vandal,  lib.  i.  pp.  8,  9. 

"  Gibbon's  Hist.  chap,  xxxviii.  Lingard's  Hist.  Engl.  vol.  i.  chap.  ii.  Sigonii  de 
Occid.  Imp.  lib.  xiii.  anno  449. 

'"  Jornand.  de  Reb.  Get.  c.  33.  p.  666,  c.  50-55,  pp.  685-694.  Sigonii  do  Oc- 
cid. Imp.  lib.  xiii.  an.  455. 

"  Jomand.  de  Reb.  Get.  c.  52,  p.  689.  Sigonii  de  Occident.  Imper.  lib.  xiii.  anno 
455,  lib.  XV.  anno  493. 

47 


370  THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST. 

9.  The  Lombards,  who  were  a  branch  of  the  Gepidse,  were 
also  under  the  sway  of  Attila  at  the  period  of  his  invasion  of  Gaul 
and  Italy  ;  and  on  the  dissolution  of  his  empire  in  455,  assumed 
a  portion  of  Pannonia,^  which  they  continued  to  retain  till  the 
reign  of  Justinian,  when  they  conquered  the  Gepidas,  whose  seats 
were  within  the  eastern  empire,  chiefly,  and  on  the  north  of  the 
Danube.-  They  subsequently  extended  their  conquests  towards 
the  west  to  Bavaria.^  In  568  they  invaded  and  conquered  Italy, 
where  they  maintained  their  empire  till  near  the  close  of  the 
eightli  century.^ 

10.  The  Heruli,  who  had  also  been  under  the  sway  of  Attila, 
in  476  crossed  the  Danube  into  Noricum,  and  advancing  into  It- 
aly, conquered  the  Romans,  dethroned  Augustulus,  proclaimed 
Odoacer  their  leader  king  of  Italy,  and  maintained  their  empire 
till  conquered  by  the  Ostrogoths  in  493.^ 

These  separate  dynasties  are  with  propriety  united  in  a  single 
symbol,  and  exhibited  as  one  great  combination  of  usurping  ty- 
rants, from  the  similarity  of  their  arrogations,  policy,  and  rulers. 
They  were  all  feudatory  monarchies.  They  all  adopted,  in  a  large 
degree,  the  laws  of  the  ancient  empire  as  their  common  law.^ 
They  united  in  the  same  usurpation  of  the  divine  rights,  in  imposing 
the  same  false  religion  on  iheir  subjects,  and  in  a  similar  hostili- 
ty to  the  true  people  of  God.  They  all  nationalized  the  church, 
and  all  persecuted  dissenters. 

11.  They  were  to  their  subjects  in  strength,  ferocity,  and  blood 

'  Grotius,  in  his  Prolegomena  to  the  history  of  the  Goths,  quotes  a  passage  from  Paul 
Waruefrid's  Miscellanvj  expressly  asserting  that  the  Gepida;,  of  whom  the  Lombards 
were  a  branch,  passed  the  Danube  in  the  reigns  of  Arcadius  and  Honorius,  and  set- 
tled around  Singidunum  and  Sirmium.  Sed  addendus  est  Pauli  iliius  notissimis 
locis  alius  minus  cognitus  ex  Miscella  ejus  liistoria.  Namque  ubi  ad  Theodosii  fili- 
orum  pervcnit  tempora,  sic  ait,  ipse  ut  dixi  Longobardus.  '  Eodem  tempore 
erant  Gothi  et  aliffi  gentes  multaj  et  maximse  trans  Dauubium  habitantes :  ex  qui- 
bus  rationabiliores  quatuor  sunt,  Gothi  scilicet,  Huisigothi,  Gepides,  et  Vandali, 
et  nomen  tantum,  et  nihil  aliud  mutantes . . .  Isti  sub  Arcadio  et  Honorio  Danubium 
transeuntes,  locati  sunt  in  terra  Romanorum,  et  Gepides  quidem  ex  quibus  postea 
divisi  sunt  Longobardi  et  Avares,  villas  quiE  sunt  circa  Singidunum  et  Sirmium  hab- 
itavere.'  — Proleg.  ad  Hist.  Goth.  p.  27.  So  also  Procopius,  Hist.  Vand.  lib.  i.  pp.  5,  6. 
Grotius  represents  them,  on  the  death  of  Attila,  as  taking  possession  of  that  i)art 
of  Pannonia  which  had  before  been  occupied  by  the  Hunns.  Postremo  Marcia- 
no  imperante  pulsis  Hunnis,  Gepidro  in  PannonifB  partes  Hunnis  quondam  iusessas, 
successere.     Ab  his  Gepidis  orti  sunt  illi  Longobardi. — Proleg.  p.  53. 

^  Procopii  Hist.  Vand.  lib.  i.  pp.  5,  6.  Post  (iepidaj,  circa  Singidunum  et  Sirmium 
et  ad  utramque  Danubii  ripam  agros  adepti  sunt,  quos  et  nunc  teiient.  Also  lib. 
iii.  pp.  387-;}94,  lib.  iv.  p.  488. 

'  Pauli  Warnefridi  de  Gest.  Longobard.  lib.  i.  c.  19,  20,  21,  22,  pp.  757-761. 

*  Sigonii  de  Reg.  Ital.  lib.  i.  an.  5G7-570. 

*  Sigonii  de  Occid.  Imp.  lib.  xiv.  anno  47G. 

*  Gibbon's  Hist.  chap,  xxxviii.  and  xxxix.     Labbei  Coucil.  tom.  ix.  p.  761. 


THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST.  371 

iness,  what  an  aniuuil  would  be  to  its  victim,  that  united  in  itself 
the  agihty  of  the  panther,  the  strength  of  the  bear,  and  the  mer- 
cilessness  and  voracity  of  the  lion.' 

III.  One  of  the  successions  of  the  dragon  rule  denoted  by  its 
heads,  was  cut  off  for  a  period  by  the  sword,  the  sceptre  as- 
sumed by  one  of  the  order  denoted  by  the  head  that  preceded  it, 
and  at  length  the  interrupted  succession  restored  again.  The 
head  receiving  the  death-wound,  was  the  last,  representing  Con- 
stantine  and  his  successors  professing  Christianity,  and  making 
the  Christian  religion  the  religion  of  the  state.  The  death-wound 
was  the  interruption  of  that  succession  by  the  slaugliter  of  all  the 
heirs  to  the  throne  who  professed  the  Christian  faith,  and  acces- 
sion of  Julian,  an  open  and  zealous  pagan,  who  re-established 
polytheism,  and  endeavored  to  suppress  Christianity.  The  re- 
covery of  the  head  from  the  wound,  was  the  restoration  of  the 
Christian  succession  in  Jovian.  The  prediction  that  the  Chris- 
tian succession  was  to  receive  a  deadly  wound  by  a  sword,  had 
a  signal  fulfilment,  on  the  one  hand,  in  the  slaughter  of  the  impe- 
rial family  by  Constantino  himself  and  his  son  Constantius,  and 
on  the  other,  in  their  fall  in  battle  and  by  conspiracy.  Crispus, 
the  eldest  son  of  Constantine,  Faustina,  the  mother  of  his  other 
sons,  and  Licinius,  the  son  of  his  sister  Flavia,  were  put  to  death 
by  Constantine  himself.^  His  two  brothers,  Julius  Constantius, 
andDalniatius  the  censor,  Optatus,  the  husband  of  one  of  his  sisters, 
Julius  Dalmatius  Caesar  and  Hannibalianus,  sons  of  Dalmatius  the 
censor,  and  five  other  cousins,  were  massacred  by  the  order  or 
concurrence  of  Constantius  immediately  on  his  accession.^  Of 
the  sons  of  Constantine  who  survived  him,  Constantine  the  el- 
dest was  slain  in  the  year  340  in  a  civil  war  with  his  brother  Con- 
stans  ;*  Constans  was  assassinated  in  the  year  350  by  Magnen- 
tius  f  soon  after  Nepotianus,  a  cousin,  who  usurped  the  purple 
at  Rome,  was  put  to  death  ;"  and  in  354,  Gallus  the  brother  of 
Julian  ;  when,  on  the  death  of  Constantius  in  the  year  361,"  Ju- 

'  Nemo  bujus  taiitae  belluas  immanitatom  potest  pro  merito  describcre  ;  qute  in 
uiio  loco  recubans,  tanien  per  totuin  orbeni  deiitibus  ferreis  ssevit,  et  noii  tantum  ar- 
tus  homiauin  diswipat,  sed  et  ossa  ipsa  coinniinuit,  et  in  cineres  furit,  uequis  extet  se- 
pultnrffi  locus. — Lactantii  Instit.  lib.  v.  c.  11. 

^  Pliilostorgli  Mist.  Eccl.  lib.  ii.  c.  4.  Zosimi  Hi.-?t.  lib.  ii.  c.  29.  Eutropil  Hist.  lib. 
X.  c.  6. 

^Juliani  Epist.  ad  Athen.  Zosimi  Hist.  lib.  ii.  c.  39,  40.  Thoodoriti  Eccl 
Hist.  lib.  iii.  c.  2.     Socratis  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  iii.  c.  25. 

*  Philost.  Hist.  Eccl.  lib.  iii.  c.  1. 

^  Eutropii  Hist.  lib.  x.  c.  9.     Gibbon's  Hist.  Decl.  and  Fall,  chap,  xviii. 

'  Socratis  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  ii.  c.  25.   Sozomenj  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  iv.  c.  1. 

'  Socratis  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  ii.  c.  34. 


372  THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST. 

lian,  the  apostate,  being  the  only  surviving  male  of  the  family  en- 
titled to  the  sceptre,  and  having  already  been  made  Ccesar  by 
Conslanlius,  and  declared  Augustus  by  the  army  of  the  west,  suc- 
ceeded to  the  throne  without  obstruction.*  It  was  thus  by  the 
sword  that  all  those  of  the  family  were  cut  off  who  might  natu- 
rally have  continued  the  succession  of  Christian  emperors,  and 
the  sceptre  devolved,  from  the  want  of  any  other  eligible  candi- 
date,^ to  Julian,  who  had  relapsed  to  paganism,  and  immediately 
after  his  accession,  publicly  disavowed  Christianit)",  re-establish- 
ed the  worship  of  idols,  and  endeavored  to  render  it  again  the 
popular  and  national  religion.^  But  his  purpose  was  intercepted 
by  his  death  in  the  year  363,  after  a  reign  of  about  eighteen 
months,'*  and  the  death-wound  of  the  seventh  head  healed  by  the 
elevation  to  the  throne  of  Jovian  a  Christian,  and  the  continuance 
thereafter  of  a  line  of  Christian  emperors  till  the  supreme  power 
passed  from  the  Romans  to  the  Goths  in  the  west,  and  to  the 
Turks  at  Constantinople. 

IV.  The  population  of  the  empire  regarded  their  rulers  with 
awe  and  admiration.  The  serfs  and  common  people  sunk  for 
ages  to  the  most  degraded  vassalage,  revered  the  monarchs,  the 
various  ranks  of  nobles,  and  their  armed  followers,  as  a  superior 
race,  while  poets  and  historians  celebrated  their  warlike  exploits, 
and  philosophers  and  priests  justified  their  usurpations,  and  eulo- 
gized the  wisdom  and  benignity  of  their  rule. 

V.  The  population  of  the  Gothic  kingdoms  regarded  their 
monarchs  as  having  derived  important  rights  from  the  rulers  of 
the  ancient  empire,  symbolized  by  the  heads  of  the  dragon,  and 
as  authorized  by  their  example  to  arrogate  whatever  powers  had 
been  assumed  by  them,  either  in  relation  to  their  subjects,  or  in 
respect  to  God. 

They  regarded  their  kings  as  having  acquired  with  the  terri- 
tory, which  they  wrenched  from  the  Romans,  the  right  of  exer- 
cising over  it  a  similar  dominion,  and  acquiesced  in  their  assump- 
tion of  the  prerogatives  which  had  been  arrogated  by  the  empe- 
rors. Thus  they  approved  of  the  adoption  by  them  of  the  laws 
of  the  empire  in  respect  to  ecclesiastical  affairs,  and  justified  their 
usurpation  of  authority  over  the  church  and  persecution  of  dis- 
sentients, by  the  example  of  the  emperors.  The  church  had  from 

'  SocratisEccl.  Hist.  lib.  iii.  c.  1. 

-  Procopius,  a  relative  of  Julian,  wlio  aspired  to  the  throne  during  the  rcisfn  of  Va- 
lentinian  and  Valens,  and  was  put  to  deatii  by  the  latter,  was  a  pagan. — PiiUostorgii 
Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  ix.  c.  .5,  6.     Gibbon's  Hist.  chap.  x.xv. 

'  Socratis  Eccl.  Hi.st.  lib.  iii.  c.  1. 

*  Amniiaui  MarceUini  Hist.  lib.  xxv.  c.  3.     Socratis  lib.  iii.  c.  21. 


'^  THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST.  373 

the  period  of  its  nationalization  used  the  imperial  edicts  in  its  ju- 
dicial decisions.  The  bishops  of  Gaul  followed  the  Theodosian 
code  ;^  and  Burchard,  Ivo,  and  Gratian  introduced  into  their  col- 
lections of  the  canons,  many  enactments  and  decisions  from  the 
code,  Novellae,  and  digests,  and  formally  united  the  civil  and  ec- 
clesiastical law.  The  pnncipal  laws  of  the  Theodosian  code  that 
relate  to  the  church,  are  those  that  gave  it  a  civil  establishment, 
provided  for  it  revenues,  enforced  conformity  to  its  faith  and  wor- 
ship, invested  the  bishops  with  an  ecclesiastical  and  civil  jurisdic- 
tion, and  enjoined  the  execution  of  their  decrees  by  the  civil  mag- 
istrates. 

The  endeavors  of  the  Christian  emperors  to  support  and  give 
efficiency  to  the  Catholic  church  by  this  legislation,  were  alleged 
by  the  eccles'-istics  and  civilians  of  the  modern  kingdoms,  as 
proofs  that  the.r  princes  had  authority,  and  were  under  obligation 
to  support  their  nationalized  churches  by  a  similar  legislation. 
Thus  Gregory  the  Great,  in  a  letter  to  Ethelbert  of  England  : 
"  The  Almighty  exalts  the  good  to  the  government  of  the  nations, 
that  he  may  through  them  communicate  the  blessings  of  Chris- 
tianity to  their  subjects,  which  we  learn  has  taken  place  in  Eng- 
land, over  which  you  were  intrusted  with  authority,  that  you 
might  impart  the  gospel  to  those  under  your  sway.  Guard,  there- 
fore, with  care,  illustrious  son,  the  gift  which  you  have  received. 
Haste  to  spread  the  Christian  faith  among  your  people.  Increase 
your  zeal  for  their  conversion,  oppose  the  worship  of  idols,  over- 
turn the  fanes.  Raise  the  manners  of  your  subjects  to  purity,  by 
exhorting,  terrifying,  alluring,  chastening,  and  exhibiting  a  good 
example,  that  you  may  find  him  a  rewarder  in  heaven,  whose 
name  and  word  you  diffuse  on  the  earth  ;  for  he  whose  honor  you 
seek  and  maintain  among  the  nations,  will  render  your  name,  al- 
ready distinguished,  still  more  glorious  with  posterity  ;  for  thus 
formerly  the  emperor  Consiantine,  so  illustrious  for  piety,  recall- 
ed the  Roman  empire  from  the  homage  of  idols,  converted  it  to 
the  Redeemer,  and  by  that  means  acquired  far  higher  praise  than 
the  ancient  princes,  and  surpassed  his  predecessors  in  fame  as 
much  as  in  achievements."^ 

Bellarmine  alleges  their  example  to  show  that  princes  have  the 
right  to  legislate  over  religion,  and  compel  their  subjects  to  con- 

'  Utcbatur  quidem  olim  ecclesia  imperatoriis  legibus  ad  judicia  ordinanda,  ct  Gal- 
liarumcpiscopi  codicem  Tlieodosiaiuun  sequebautur. — Petri  de  I\Iarca  de  Concord. 
Sacerd.  et  Imp.  torn.  ii.  lib.  iii.  c.  vi.  p.  46.  Capit.  Caroli.  Mag.  lib.  vi.  c.  3G6,  pp. 
985,  986.      Van  Espen.  Jus.  Eccl.  pr.  i.  tit.  xiii.  c.  3. 

^  Gregorii  Epist.  66,  lib.  xi.  Iiid.  iv.  p.  11 64. 


374  THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST. 

form  to  the  nationalized  church.  "  It  is  proved  by  the  testimo- 
ny of  the  pontiffs.  Leo  the  Great,  addressing  Leo  the  emperor, 
said,  '  I  use  the  freedom  of  the  Calhohc  faith  with  the  most 
Christian  prince,  who  is  to  be  numbered  with  honor  anioii^  the 
preachers  of  Christ,  and  exhort  you  to  the  fellowship  of  the  apos- 
tles and  prophets  ;  that  you  would  resolutely  contemn  and  repel 
those  who  disown  the  Christian  name,  and  not  suffer  those  im- 
pious parricides  to  treat  of  the  faith,  who,  it  is  apparent,  wish  on- 
ly to  subvert  it.  For  as  God  has  conferred  on  your  clemency 
such  illumination,  you  ought  immediately  to  exert  the  regal  pow 
er  which  is  intrusted  to  you,  not  merely  for  the  government  ok 
the  v^orld,  but  chiefly  for  the  protection  of  the  church,  that  by  re 
pressing  those  nefarious  endeavors,  you  may  maintain  what  is  es- 
tablished, and  restore  what  is  disturbed  to  order.'  The  pious  em 
perors  held  the  same  opinion,  for  Theodosius  the  Great,  plucked 
up  by  theroots  that  liberty  of  believing  which  some  princes  had 
pernntted,  and  commanded  all  to  adopt  the  faith  which  the  Ro- 
man pontiff  taught  was  obligatory.  Ambrose  commended  the 
younger  Valentinian  that  he  resolutely  resisted  Rome,  asking  the 
liberty  she  had  formerly  enjoyed  of  sacrificing  to  the  gods.  Mar- 
cian  in  like  manner,  not  only  severely  prohibited  all  public  dis- 
putation respecting  the  decrees  of  the  councils,  but  forbid  the  pri- 
vate examination  of  them  by  individuals."^ 

He  alleged  the  example  not  only  of  the  Christian,  but  even  of 
the  pagan  emperors,  as  justifying  the  princes  of  the  modern  king- 
doms in  persecuting  heretics.  "  Respecting  the  punishment 
which,  after  sentence  by  the  church,  civil  princes  can  and  ought 
to  inflict  on  heretics,  we  shall  begin  with  their  books,  and  show 
that  they  may  of  right  interdict  and  burn  them  ;  and  it  may  be 
proved  from  the  ancient  and  perpetual  custom,  not  only  of  Chris- 
tians, but  of  pagans."  And  he  quotes  the  narrative  in  Valerius 
Maximus,  of  the  burning  by  order  of  the  Roman  senate,  of  cer- 
tain books  that  were  unfriendly  to  religion  ;  and  the  relation  by 
Cicero  of  the  banishment  of  Protagoras  by  the  Athenians  for  the 
same  reason,  and  destruction  of  his  books.  "  The  Nicene  council 
adjudged  the  books  of  Arius  to  the  flames,  and  Constantino  or- 
dered the  execution  of  the  sentence,  and  threatened  death  to  who- 
ever should  be  found  clandestinely  reading  his  works."  "  When 
the  heresy  of  Nestorius  was  condemned  by  the  council  of  Eph- 
esus,  iiis  books  also  were  interdicted,  and  ordered  by  the  empe- 
ror Theodosius  to  be  burned."" 

"We  will  show  that  incorrigible  heretics,  and  especially  the 

•  Bellarmini  de  Laicis,  lib.  iii.  c.  18.  *  Ibid.  c.  20. 


THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST.  375 

relapsed,  may  and  ought  to  be  excommunicated  by  the  church 
and  punished  by  the  secular  powers,  both  with  temporal  penalties, 
and  with  death."  "  It  is  proved  by  the  decrees  and  laws  of  the 
emperors,  which  the  church  has  always  approved.  Constantine 
the  Great,  at  the  request  of  the  synod  of  Nicaea,  sent  Arius  and 
his  associates  into  exile.  He  inflicted  punishments  on  the  Dona- 
tists  also,  and  many  excellent  emperors  enacted  the  severest  laws 
against  heretics.  Afterwards  Theodosius,  Valentinian,  Marcian, 
and  others  distinguished  for  their  piety,  issued  edicts  against 
them,  by  which  they  subjected  them  sometimes  to  fines,  some- 
times to  the  confiscation  of  their  goods,  sometimes  to  scourging 
and  exile,  and  sometimes  to  death.'" 

Bossuet  says,  "  Whoever  carefully  examines  the  laws  of  the 
Theodosian  and  Justinian  codes  against  heretics,  will  see  that 
they  are  the  source  of  the  decrees  against  them  which  the  church, 
aided  by  the  edicts  of  princes,  enacted  in  the  third  and  fourth 
Lateran  councils  ;  for  it  is  apparent  at  once,  why  they  are  re- 
garded as  infamous,  why  they  are  held  to  be  incapable  of  inherit- 
ing and  bequeathing  property,  why  they  are  deprived  of  their 
possessions  ;  and  although  those  penalties  were  especially  directed 
against  Manicheans  and  Donatists,  they  were  not  improperly  ex- 
tended to  other  heretics,  especially  the  Albigenses,  whom  the  learned 
know  were  a  branch  of  the  Manicheans,  and  who  were  deserved- 
ly coerced  by  the  same  punishments,  because  they  had  imitated 
the  infuriate  Donatists  in  devastating  the  provinces.  It  is  not 
strange  that  they  who  by  the  laws  had  forfeited  their  lives,  should 
be  confined  in  prison,  reduced  to  slavery,  and  assailed  with  war. 
To  the  laws  of  the  ancient  emperors,  subsequent  princes  added 
such  as  were  suited  to  the  exigencies  of  the  times,  and  permitted 
many  things  to  the  ecclesiastics  against  heretics,  in  order  that  the 
reverence  due  to  the  clergy  might  be  more  fully  enforced  against 
the  contemptuous."^ 

The  same  views  were  maintained  by  Petrus  de  Marca,  and  the 
examples  of  the  emperors  quoted  to  sustain  them  :  "  Although  to 
dictate  laws  in  regard  to  ecclesiastical  and  spiritual  things,  does 
not  fall  within  the  limits  of  the  royal  prerogative,  yet  princes  are 
bound  to  sustain  canonical  decrees  by  their  laws."  "  If  we  ad- 
mit this  in  respect  to  pagan  princes,  how  much  more  must  we 
hold  that  the  duty  of  defending  and  advancing  religion  is  express- 
ly devolved  on  Christian  monarchs,  who  are  imbued  with  the  true 
faith,  and  advanced  by  the  aids  of  grace  to  extraordinary  knowl- 

'  Bellarmini  de  Laicis  lib.  iii.  c.  21,  pp.  548, 549. 

'  Bossuetii  Defeiis.  Declar.  Cleri.  Gall.  pr.  i.  lib.  iv.  c.  3. 


376  THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST. 

edge,"^  And  he  alleges  the  examples  of  Theodoshis,  Marcian, 
and  others,  to  prove  the  right  and  duty  of  princes  to  sustain  the 
church  ;  and  their  example  has  been  appealed  to  as  authority  for 
the  usurpations  and  tyranny  of  the  rulers  of  the  modern  kingdoms, 
by  the  great  body  of  the  writers  who  have  treated  of  the  subject. 
from  the  days  of  Gregory  the  Great  to  the  present  time. 

VI.  The  ancient  Roman  rulers  and  the  Gothic  monarchs,  were 
accordingly  guilty  of  blasphemy  against  God,  in  their  usurpations 
of  authority  over  his  rights  and  laws.  Their  arrogalions  implied 
that  his  rights  as  a  lawgiver,  were  subordinate  to  theirs  ;  that  it 
was  in  their  power  to  rescind  his  legislation,  and  exempt  their 
subjects  from  responsibility  to  him  ;  and  thence  that  his  whole 
government,  which  professes  to  be  founded  on  rights  that  are  pe- 
culiar to  him,  not  on  their  will,  is  a  usurpation.  How  clearly  their 
assumptions  were  fraught  with  that  claim  of  superiority  to  God, 
denial  of  his  prerogatives,  and  accusation  of  his  rule,  is  apparent 
from  their  actually  asserting  a  dominion  over  his  laws  and  his 
people  in  their  peculiar  relations  to  him,  through  the  legislation  of 
fifteen  hundred  years  ;  rescinding  his  commands  and  institutions  ; 
introducing  a  different  code  ;  instituting  new  religious  rites  ; 
constituting  creatures,  images,  and  relics,  objects  of  worship  ;  ap- 
pointing new  mediators,  and  methods  of  sanctificaiion  and  par- 
don ;  and  treating  those  who  refused  submission  to  their  will, 
and  paid  a  religious  homage  to  God  only,  as  apostates  ;  pursu- 
ing them  with  fire  and  sword,  and  hunting  them  from  existence 
as  the  most  atrocious  malefactors.  No  actions  can  be  imagined 
which  could  embody  a  more  formal  and  emphatic  assumption  of 
authority  over  his  laws,  and  ascription  to  him,  therefore,  of  infi- 
nite ursurpation  in  the  institution  and  exercise  of  his  govern- 
ment. 

VII.  The  rulers  symbolized  by  the  wild  beast,  traduced  the 
tabernacle  of  God.  They  cahuninated  the  heavens,  the  place  in 
which  he  visibly  manifests  himself,  and  receives  the  homage  of 
the  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect  and  the  angelic  hosts,  by  ex- 
liibiting  them  as  the  residence  of  innumerable  other  beings  that 
are  entitled  to  divine  worship. 

They  regarded  the  saints  and  angels  whom  they  invoked,  as 
residing  in  the  divine  presence,^  and  m  sanctioning  their  invoca- 
tion, deified  them  by  the  ascription  to  them  of  the  attributes  and 
prerogatives  of  God,  and  thereby  traduced  the  heavens,  by  rep- 
resenting them  as  the  abode  not  merely  of  the  Self-existent,  Eter- 

^  Petri  de  Marca  Concord.  Sacerd.  et.  Imp.  lib.  ii.  c.  10,  torn.  i.  pp.  244-248. 
'  Benedicli  xii.  Bull.  iii.  ap.  Bullar.  Mag.  toin.  i.  p.  2 17. 


THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST,  377 

nal,  and  Almighty,  who  alone  is  God  and  has  a  right  to  the  hom- 
age of  his  creatures,  but  of  countless  other  deities  also  of  similar 
prerogatives  and  title  to  worship. 

That  homage  of  creatures  was  countenanced  by  Constantino 
and  his  sons  ;  was  specifically  sanctioned  by  Theodosius  and  his 
immediate  successors,  by  ratifying  the  faith  of  the  bishop  of  Rome 
and  enforcing  it  on  all  their  subjects  ;  and  was  formally  legalized 
by  Constantine  V.  and  Irene  by  confirming  the  decrees  of  the  sec- 
ond council  of  Niccea  approving  the  invocation  of  saints  as  well 
as  the  homage  of  images,  and  by  their  successors  through  all  the 
ages  that  followed  to  the  fall  of  the  eastern  empire. 

It  was  still  more  expressly  sanctioned  by  the  kings  of  the  mod- 
ern empire.  Their  invocation,  according  to  Bellarmine,  is  deno- 
ted by  the  litanies  which  were  appointed  by  the  first  council  of 
Orleans,  the  fifth  and  sixth  of  Toledo,  and  several  others,  to  be  re- 
cited annually  for  three  days  anterior  to  the  anniversary  of  Christ's 
birth  or  ascension.  Those  councils  were  called,  and  their  canons 
ratified,  by  the  Spanish  and  Frank  princes.^ 

But  they  sanctioned  their  worship  not  only  by  legalizing  the 
Catholic  church  which  was  addicted  to  their  homage,  and  by 
their  example,  but  by  soliciting  the  canonization  by  the  pope  of 
saints  who  had  lived  in  their  dominions.  Thus  it  was  at  the  in- 
stance of  Henry  of  England,  that  King  Edward  was  canonized 
in  1163  and  Thomas  a  Becket  in  1173."^  It  was  at  the  desire 
of  the  king  and  nobles  that  Richard,  bishop  of  Chester,  was 
canonized  in  1261  f  and  of  Philip  of  France,  that  St.  Ivo  was 
canonized  in  1346.  "  We  make  known  to  your  regal  excellence 
in  respect  to  the  canonization  of  the  pure  confessor  of  Christ,  Ivo, 
formerly  a  presbyter,  for  which  your  sublimity  has  earnestly 
solicited  us,  that  after  the  long  and  careful  examination  which 
the  arduousness  of  the  question  demands,  we  have,  with  the  con- 
currence of  our  brethren,  canonized  him  to  the  glory  of  God,  and 
the  consolation  of  the  faithful,  especially  of  your  kingdom,  which 
is  known  to  have  been  the  place  of  his  birth,  and  ordered  that  he 
should  be  inscribed  in  the  catalogue  of  the  saints,  and  hereafter 
venerated  as  a  saint  by  the  church."'* 

It  was  at  the  request  of  Alphonsus,  King  of  Spain,  that  St. 
Bernard  was  canonized  in  1450  ;^  and  at  the  solicitation  of  Fred- 
erick, emperor  of  Germany,  that  St.  Catherine  was  canonized  in 
1461.®     The  emperor  of  Germany,  kings  of  France,  Hungary, 

'  Bellarmini  De  Sanct.  Beat.  lib.  i.  c.  19. 

'  BuUar.  Mag.  torn.  i.  pp.  40,  41.  '  Ibid.  torn.  i.  p.  125. 

*  Ibid.  torn.  i.  p.  257.  '  Ibid.  torn.  i.  pp.  359,  360.  "  Ibid.  toia.  i.  p.  371. 

48 


378  THE    TEN-HORNED    WILD    BEAST. 

Sicily,  several  of  the  princes  of  Italy,  and  many  others  united  in 
urging  the  canonization  of  Bonaventura  in  1482.  "Our  sons 
beloved  in  Christ,  Frederick,  emperor  of  the  Romans,  Louis, 
king  of  France,  Ferdinand  of  Sicily,  Matthias  of  Hungary  ;  our 
dear  and  noble  sons  also  Alphonsus,  Duke  of  Calabria,  and  John 
of  Venice,  John  of  Milan,  and  John  Burbon,  illustrious  dukes; 
moreover  the  cities  Florence,  Sens,  Lyons,  Perusia,  and  Bal- 
neoregium,  have  solicited  his  canonization  by  us,  with  such  zeal 
and  perseverance,  that  we  should  regard  it  as  severe  and  impious 
to  resist  them  in  a  request  so  pious,  and  to  which  they  seem  to 
have  been  prompted  by  God."^  Of  the  impious  forms  and  ex- 
pressions often  employed  in  the  act  of  canonization,  the  follow 
ing  are  examples  :  "  We  therefore,  following  the  suggestion  and 
will  of  God,  and  considering  that  it  is  just  and  fit  that  we  should 
praise  and  glorify  those  on  earth  with  a  religious  homage,  whom 
God  honors  in  heaven,  inasmuch  as  it  is  he  rather  who  is  praised 
and  glorified  in  them,  we  decreed  that  the  day  of  his  canonization 
should  be  celebrated  in  the  basilica  of  the  prince  of  the  apostles, 
where  a  vast  multitude  of  every  order  assembled,  and  all  the 
other  rites  having  been  legitimately  performed,  the  procurator  of 
the  order  of  minors,  standing  up,  pronounced  the  words  of  the 
Aposllc  John,  There  are  three  that  bear  witness  in  lieaven,  the 
Father,  the  Word,  and  the  Spirit ;  and  proved  by  the  documents 
which  had  been  recited,  that  the  persons  of  the  Trinity  had  tes- 
tified that  the  blessed  Bonaventura  was  in  heaven ;  the  Father 
by  the  power  of  his  miracles,  the  Son  by  the  wisdom  of  his  doc- 
trine, the  Holy  Spirit  by  the  excellence  of  his  life  ;  and  that  it  is 
required  therefore  imperativel)',  not  only  by  those  who  have  en- 
treated this  canonization,  but  by  the  indivisible  Trinity,  the  Fa- 
ther, the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  we  vouchsafe  to  pro- 
nounce the  blessed  Bonaventura  a  saint.  Trustinsf  then  that 
God  would  not  permit  us  to  err  in  this  canonization,  and  having 
fulfilled  and  caused  all  things  most  accurately  to  be  observed, 
that  are  in  any  manner  requisite 'to  it,  with  the  mature  counsel 
and  unanimous  consent  of  our  brethren,  the  cardinals  of  the  holy 
Roman  cliurch,  and  all  the  prelates  of  the  Roman  court,  relying 
on  the  aulhorit)'^  of  Almighty  God  and  his  blessed  apostles  Peter 
and  Paul,  we  decree  that  Bonaventura  of  happy  memory,  profes- 
sor of  Christianity  and  cardinal,  ought  to  be  confidently  and 
firmly  held  to  be  a  saint,  and  inscribed  in  the  catalogue  of  the 
other  saints  of  God,  and  we  hereby  solemnly  enroll  liiin  in  the 

'  Bullar.  Mag.  torn.  i.  p.  424. 


THE    TEN-HORNED    WILD    BEAST.  379 

company  of  the  holy  confessors,  pontiffs,  and  doctors,  whom  the 
holy  church  of  God  worships."^ 

They  thus  blasphemed  the  Almighty,  not  only  by  representing 
him  as  on  a  level  with  his  creatures  in  prerogatives  and  titles  to 
homage,  but  by  exhibiting  him  as  concurring  in  their  deification 
of  apostate  men,  and  sanctioning  princes,  prelates,  and  people, 
in  that  audacious  impiety.  The  bull  of  canonization  then  pro- 
ceeds to  promise  indulgence  to  those  who  should  visit  the  church 
in  which  his  body  was  interred,  to  exhort  the  clergy  and  people 
to  pray  that  God,  propitiated  by  the  intercessions  of  the  saint, 
would  protect  the  Catholic  church  from  the  assaults  of  pagans 
and  heretics,  and  to  denounce  the  vengeance  of  the  Almighty  on 
whoever  should  venture  to  contravene  the  decree.'^ 

VIII.  They  traduced  the  appropriate  places  for  the  worship 
which  the  church  on  earth  is  required  to  offer  him,  by  represent- 
ing them  to  be  only  such  structures  as  were  consecrated  by  su- 
perstitious rites,  made  the  temples  of  images,  and  devoted  to  the 
worship  of  saints,  of  angels,  of  relics,  and  of  inanimate  or  ima- 
ginary existences. 

They  uttered  this  calumny  not  only  by  legalizing  and  support- 
ing the  Catholic  church,  which  enjoined  the  consecration  of 
sacred  edifices  by  ridiculous  and  impious  rites,  and  the  deposite 
of  relics  and  images,  and  by  adopting  the  decrees  of  councils 
which  enjoined  it,  but  also  by  ratifying  similar  canons  of  their 
own  synods.  By  the  canon  law,  which  was  the  law  of  each  of 
their  kmgdoms,  worship  was  not  allowed  to  be  offered,  except  in 
edifices  consecrated  to  that  use  f  and  that  was  expressly  sanc- 
tioned by  Charlemagne  ;*  nor  were  edifices  allowed  to  be  con- 
secrated except  by  the  celebration  of  the  mass.^  The  seventh 
canon  of  the  second  council  of  Nicaea,  required  a  deposite  to  be 
made  of  relics  at  the  consecration  of  churches  f  and  the  fourth 
Lateran  council,  and  the  council  of  Trent,  whose  decrees 
were  received  by  all  Catholic  princes,  sanctioned  the  introduc- 
tion and  homage  of  pictures  and  images  in  the  temples.  The 
cathedrals,  chapels,  and  oratories,  accordingly,  in  which  the 
kings  and  nobles  offered  worship,  from  the  age  of  Gregory  the 
Great  to  the  Reformation,  were  desecrated  by  relics  and  nnages, 
and  were  the  scene  of  an  idolatrous  worship ;  and  such  still  are 
the  edifices  in  which  the  Catholic  princes  offer  their  homage. 

*  Bullar.  Mag.  torn.  i.  p.  425.  "  Ibid.  torn.  i.  p.  425. 
'  Gratiani  Decret.  de  Consecrat.  dist.  i.  c.  i. 

*  Capit.  Reg.  Franc,  anno  709,  c.  14.  toin.  i.  p.  192. 

Gratiani  Dec.  de  Consecrat.  dist.  i.  c.  iii.  °  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xiii.  p.  751. 


380  THE    TEN-HORNED    WILD    BEAST. 

IX.  They  caluminated  those  who  dwell  in  heaven,  by  repre- 
senting the  spirits  of  the  just  and  the  angelic  orders,  as  arroga- 
ting the  rights  of  God,  and  seeking  and  receiving  a  homage  from 
men,  that  is  due  only  to  him.  In  worshipping  and  legalizing  the 
worship  of  those  beings,  they  proceeded  on  the  assumption  that 
they  acquiesced  in  it,  as  appropriate  to  their  nature  and  station  ; 
and  accused  them  therefore  of  usurping  the  throne  and  preroga- 
tives of  God,  and  demanding  a  homage  as  deities  ;  which  is  to 
ascribe  to  them  the  greatest  impiely  of  which  creatures  can  be 
guilty. 

X.  The  rulers  symbolized  by  the  wild  beast,  persecuted  the 
true  people  of  God,  and  inflicted  on  them  the  most  wanton  and 
atrocious  cruelties. 

In  legalizing  the  Catholic  church,  and  adopting  the  canons  of 
the  councils,  and  edicts  of  the  Theodosian  and  Justinian  codes 
against  heretics,  as  lawf  of  their  kingdoms,  they  formally  under- 
took to  execute  the  decrees  and  judicial  decisions  of  their  synods 
and  bishops  against  dissentients ;  and  the  popes  and  bishops 
were  accustomed  in  every  age,  to  devolve  on  them  the  infliction 
of  their  sentences  to  imprisonment,  confiscation,  exile,  and  death. 
Thus  it  was  the  civil  powers  that  burned  the  martyrs  at  Orleans 
and  other  cities  in  the  south  of  France  in  1017.  It  was  the 
kings  of  France  and  dukes  of  Savoy,  that  slaughtered  the  Albi- 
genses  in  the  twelfth  and  the  Waldenses  in  the  following  centu- 
ries ;  the  kings  of  England  that  persecuted  the  Wicklifites  and 
Lollards  ;  and  of  Hungary  that  made  war  on  the  Bohemians.  It 
was  the  emperor  of  Germany  that  consigned  Huss  and  Jerome 
to  the  flames  ;  and  the  civil  rulers  that  put  to  death  the  vast 
crowd  of  martyi's  in  England,  France,  Spain,  Portugal,  the  Neth- 
erlands, Germany,  and  Sicily,  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries. 

They  assumed  the  right  moreover,  independently  of  the  com- 
mand of  the  church,  to  dictate  the  faith  and  worship  of  their  sub- 
jects, passed  laws  prohibiting  dissent  from  the  nationalized  reli- 
gion, and  punished  those  who  refused  submission  to  their  tyran- 
ny, with  forfeitures,  exile,  tortures,  and  death.  Thus  Louis  of 
France  :  "  Louis,  by  the  grace  of  God  king  of  the  French,  to  all 
the  citizens  of  Narbonne  and  other  subjects  residing  in  that  dio- 
cese, health  and  favor.  Wishing  in  the  first  years  of  our  life  and 
reign  to  serve  him  from  whom  we  derive  our  kingdom  and  sta- 
tion, we  desire  in  order  to  his  honor,  that  the  church  in  your 
province,  which  has  long  been  agitated  with  innumerable  trials, 
should  under  our  sway  be  honored  and  happily  ruled.     Where- 


THE    TEN-HORNED    WILD    BEAST.  381 

fore  with  the  concurrence  of  tlie  great  and  Avise  we  decree,  that 
the  churches  and  ecclesiastics  in  the  aforesaid  district,  use  the 
hberties  and  immunities  which  the  Galhcan  church  uses,  and 
enjoy  them  fully  according  to  the  custom  of  that  church  ;  and 
inasmuch  as  heretics  have  for  a  long  time  disseminated  their 
venom  in  your  parts,  defiling  in  many  forms  our  mother  church, 
we  ordain  in  order  to  their  extirpation,  that  heretics  who  deviate 
from  the  Catholic  faith,  by  whatever  name  they  are  called,  after 
they  have  been  convicted  of  heresy  by  the  bishop  of  the  place, 
or  other  ecclesiastical  person  who  has  the  power,  shall  be  imme- 
diately punished  with  a  becoming  infliction.  We  ordain  like- 
wise and  strictly  enjoin,  that  no  one  presume  in  any  manner  to 
harbor  or  shield  heretics,  or  in  any  other  way  favor  or  trust  them. 
Should  any  one  dare  to  violate  the  foregoing  injunction,  he  shall 
neither  be  admissible  as  a  witness,  eligible  to  any  honor,  nor 
capable  of  making  a  will,  nor  inheriting  property  by  succession. 
All  his  goods,  moveable  and  immoveable,  which  shall  be  forfeited 
by  his  heresy  itself,  we  decree  shall  never  be  restored  either  to 
him  or  his  posterity.  We  likewise  command  the  barons  of  the 
provinces  and  our  magistrates  and  other  subjects,  to  be  solicitous 
now  and  hereafter  and  zealous  to  clear  the  country  of  heretics 
and  heretical  defilement ;  and  enjoin  that  they  diligently  endea- 
vor to  detect  them,  and  when  they  have  found  them,  present 
them  without  delay  to  the  aforementioned  ecclesiastics  ;  and  that 
on  their  being  publicly  convicted  of  error  and  heresy,  disregarding 
all  prejudices,  entreaties,  bribes,  fear,  and  favor,  they  do  in  re- 
spect to  them  what  they  ought.  But  as  they  who  should  exer- 
cise their  diligence  in  the  detection  and  seizure  of  heretics,  are 
to  be  honored  and  stimulated  by  rewards,  we  ordain  and  com- 
mand that  our  magistrates  in  whose  districts  heretics  may  be 
seized,  pay  to  the  captor  for  each  heretic,  after  he  has  been  con- 
victed of  heresy,  two  marks  for  the  space  of  two  years,  and  after 
two  years,  one.  As  peace-breakers  are  accustomed  to  waste 
the  country  and  disturb  the  quiet  of  the  church  and  ecclesiastics, 
we  ordain  that  they  be  wholly  driven  off,  and  peace  maintained 
in  the  land,  and  that  all  exert  themselves  to  preserve  it.  More- 
over, as  the  keys  of  the  church  are  contemned  in  that  region,  we 
order  that  the  excommunicated  be  avoided  according  to  the  ca- 
nonical injunctions  ;  and  if  any  perversely  continue  under  excom- 
munication a  year,  that  they  then  be  compelled  by  civil  force  to 
return  to  union  with  the  church,  that  at  least  external  punish- 
ment may  constrain  those  whom  the  fear  of  God  does  not  recall 
from  evil.     We  therefore  enjoin  our  magistrates,  after  a  year,  to 


382  THE    TEN-IIORNED    AVILD    BEAST. 

seize  all  goods  moveable  and  immoveable  of  such  excommuni- 
cated persons,  and  not  to  restore  them  in  any  manner  until  the 
aforesaid  persons  have  made  satisfaction  to  the  church,  and  been 
absolved  ;  nor  then  even  unless  at  our  special  command.  The 
tithes  of  which  the  church  has  long  been  defrauded  by  the  malice 
of  the  people,  we  order  to  be  restored.  Let  not  the  laics  here- 
after retain  them,  but  allow  the  church  to  take  them  freely. 

"  We  order  these  decrees  to  be  inviolably  observed,  and  that 
the  barons,  vassals,  and  good  villagers,  swear  to  observe  them, 
and  depute  our  magistrates  to  execute  them ;  who,  within  a 
month  of  their  appointment,  shall  swear  in  a  public  place,  and 
on  a  public  day,  to  observe  them,  and  cause  them  to  be  observed 
by  all  in  good  faith  ;  which  should  they  not  do,  they  may  expect 
the  forfeiture  of  all  their  goods,  and  corporal  punishment.  Know 
ye  also,  that  such  is  our  will  that  these  statutes  should  be  ob- 
served, that  even  when  our  brother  shall  have  possession  of  that 
territory,  he  shall  swear  to  observe  them,  and  cause  them  to  be 
observed  by  his  subjects.  That  these  enactments  may  continue 
established  and  unaltered,  we  have  caused  them  to  be  confirmed 
by  our  seal.    Done  at  Paris,  in  April,  m  the  year  of  grace,  1228.'" 

In  like  manner  Frederick  II.  of  Germany.  "  Frederick,  by 
the  grace  of  God,  emperor  of  the  Romans,  and  king  of  Jerusa- 
lem and  Sicily,  to  all  his  princes,  venerable  archbishops,  and 
other  prelates,  dukes,  marquises,  counts,  barons,  and  all  in  au- 
thority in  his  empire,  grace.  The  task  of  government,  and  the 
imperial  dignity  with  which  we  are  intrusted  by  God,  require 
that  the  material  sword  which  we  wield,  in  distinction  from  that 
of  the  priesthood,  should  be  used  against  the  enemies  of  the 
faith,  and  in  the  extermination  of  heretical  pravity. 

"  We  enact,  therefore,  that  the  heretical,  to  whatever  class  they 
are  referred,  and  in  whatever  part  of  the  empire  they  have  been 
condemned  by  the  church  and  assigned  to  the  civil  power,  shall 
be  punished  with  a  due  infliction. 

"  Should  any  of  them,  however,  after  they  have  been  seized, 
choose,  from  fear  of  death,  to  return  to  the  unity  of  the  faith, 
they  shall  be  consigned  to  perpetual  imprisonment,  in  order  to 
the  performance  of  penance  according  to  the  penal  canons. 

"  Moreover,  when  heretics  shall  be  found  in  cities,  towns,  or 
other  places  in  the  empire,  by  inquisitors  commissioned  by  the 
apostolic  seat,  and  other  zealots  of  tlie  orthodox  faith,  they  who 
have  jurisdiction  there  are  required,  at  the  suggestion  of  inquisi- 
tors and  other  Catholics,  to  seize  and  guard  them  strictly  until, 
'  Petri  de  Marca.  Concord.  S.  and  Imp.  lib.  iii.  c.  i.  torn.  ii.  pp.  13,  14. 


THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST.  383 

being  condemned  by  an  ecclesiastical  sentence,  they  who  re- 
proached the  sacraments  of  faith  and  life  can  be  consigned  to  a 
reproachful  death.  We  ordain  that  the  advocates  and  unlawful 
defenders,  whom  the  artful  enemy  raises  up  or  prepares  to  favor 
the  error  of  heretics,  shall  be  subjected  to  the  same  punishment, 
inasmuch  as  it  reduces  those  whom  it  pollutes  to  the  same  level 
unless  on  being  admonished  they  consult  their  safety  and  desist. 

"Those,  moreover,  who,  being  convicted  of  heresy  in  one  place, 
remove  to  other  places,  that  tliey  may  more  warily  multiply  con- 
verts, we  condemn  to  due  punishment. 

"  We  decree  also  that  those  heretics  who,  having  been  brought 
to  judgment,  and  from  the  peril  of  life  abjured  their  heresy,  shall 
afterwards  be  found  to  have  sworn  falsely  and  relapsed  to  their 
former  error,  shall  be  subjected  to  death,  that  their  falsehood  may 
meet  a  proper  retribution. 

"  We  withhold,  moreover,  from  heretics  and  their  harborers  and 
favorers,  all  benefit  of  objection  and  appeal,  desiring  that  the 
germs  of  heresy  should  be  wholly  extirpated  from  the  empire, 
in  which  the  true  faith  should  always  exist. 

"  Moreover,  as  we  are  angry  at  those  who  contemn  our  name, 
and  condemn  those  who  are  guilty  of  treason,  both  in  their  own 
persons  and  by  disinheritance  in  their  offspring,  much  more  vio- 
lently and  justly  are  we  provoked  at  the  blasphemers  of  God's 
name  and  detractors  of  the  Catholic  faith,  and  by  our  imperial 
authority  deprive  the  heirs  and  offspring  of  such  heretics,  their 
harborers,  favorers,  and  advocates,  to  the  second  generation,  of 
all  temporal  advancements,  public  offices,  and  honors,  that  they 
may  waste  away  in  continual  grief  because  of  the  crimes  of  their 
ancestors,  and  know  experimentally  that  God  is  jealous,  and 
avenges  the  sins  of  parents  on  their  offspring.  We  do  not,  how- 
ever, mean  that  they  are  to  be  wholly  debarred  from  compassion. 
They  who  do  not  adopt  the  heresy  of  their  fathers,  but  inform 
against  them,  are  not  to  be  involved  in  the  penalties  with  which 
their  parents'  guilt  is  punished. 

"  Furthermore,  we  direct  it  to  be  made  known  to  the  brethren 
of  the  order  of  preachers,  who  are  sent  into  the  empire  for  the 
care  of  the  faith  against  heretics,  and  others  whom  they  may 
summon  to  judge  heretics,  unless  they  be  persons  who  have  been 
outlawed,  that  we  wish  them  to  be  received  in  going,  tarrying, 
and  returning,  as  under  our  imperial  protection,  and  by  the  ap- 
proval and  aid  of  the  faithful  of  the  empire,  kept  unharmed ; 
and  command  all  of  you  among  whom  they  may  come,  to  receive 
them  kindly,  and  employ  all  your  wisdom,  authority,  and  power, 


384  THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST. 

in  the  work  so  acceptable  to  God,  of  preserving  them  harmless 
from  the  assaults  of  the  heretics  who  plot  against  them. 

"  Heretics  also,  and  those  who  inform  against  them,  in  your 
jurisdiction,  are  to  be  seized  and  retained  in  custody  until  the  ac- 
cused can  be  ecclesiastically  condemned  and  subjected  to  the 
punishment  which  they  merit. 

"  Know  that  in  the  performance  of  this  business  you  will 
render  an  obedience  most  grateful  to  God,  and  acceptable  to  us, 
if  you  exert  yourselves,  together  with  those  brethren,  effectually 
in  expelling  from  the  empire  this  new  infamy  of  heresy  ;  and 
that  if  any  one  shall  hereafter  be  remiss  and  unserviceable,  he 
must,  deservedly,  appear  culpable  both  before  God  and  in  our 
sight.     Dated,  Padua,  February  22d,  1243."^ 

Similar  statutes  were  enacted  by  the  princes  of  the  other  king- 
doms. 

XI.  The  prediction  that  he  who  led  into  captivity  should  him- 
self become  a  captive,  and  he  that  slew  with  the  sword  be  him- 
self slain,  had  a  signal  fulfilment  in  the  slaughter  and  vassalage 
of  all  those  who  attempted  to  deliver  themselves  by  force  from 
the  religious  tyranny  of  the  European  monarchs. 

The  Albigenses  were  nearly  exterminated  by  the  cruel  armies 
against  which  they  attempted  to  defend  themselves,  and  tiie 
small  number  that  remained  after  the  devastation  of  their  fields, 
the  conflagration  of  their  cities,  and  the  promiscuous  slaughters 
to  which  they  were  subjected,  were  either  forced  to  conform  to 
the  Catholic  church,  or  driven  into  other  lands.  The  Walden- 
ses  perished  in  far  greater  numbers  by  the  sword,  in  their 
struggles  for  preservation  and  freedom,  than  by  the  fires  of  mar- 
tyrdom ;  and  sunk,  after  their  contests,  to  a  still  more  hopeless 
vassalage  to  their  persecutors.  The  resort  to  the  sword  by  the 
Bohemians  and  the  Huguenots  of  France,  to  defend  their  rcr 
ligious  freedom,  resulted,  after  vast  slaughters,  in  their  defeat  and 
helpless  subjection  to  the  tyranny  from  which  they  endeavored 
to  extricate  themselves.  And  the  Protestants  of  Switzerland, 
Germany,  Holland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Great  Britain,  who 
succeeded  in  delivering  themselves  from  the  dominion  of  their 
ancient  tyrants,  instead  of  securing  thereby  their  religious  liberty, 
only  placed  themselves,  by  the  nationalization  of  their  churches, 
under  the  tyranny  of  Protestant  rulers  in  place  of  Catholics. 

XII.  The  witnesses  of  God  exhibited  their  patience  and  faith 
by  meekly  enduring  the  cruelties  inilictcd  on  them  by  iheir  per- 

'  Bullar.  Mag.  torn.  i.  p.  83. 


THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST.  385 

secutors,  and  contenting  themselves  with  the  utterance  of  their 
testimony  for  him. 

No  characteristics  of  any  body  of  persons  were  ever  more  in- 
dubitable, conspicuous,  and  universal,  than  were  the  patience, 
meekness,  fidelity,  and  constancy  of  those  who  were  martyred 
by  the  rulers  of  the  European  kingdoms  for  their  profession  of 
the  faith  of  Christ,  and  rejection  of  the  false  doctrines  and  idol- 
atrous worship  of  the  Catholic  church.  Of  the  many  thousands 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  who  were  called  through  twelve  cen- 
turies to  maintain  their  allegiance  to  God  at  the  peril  of  their 
lives,  and  assailed  with  every  treacherous  art,  lacerated  by  the 
most  cruel  tortures,  subjected  to  indignities  from  which  delicacy 
revolts,  and  at  length  delivered  to  the  flames,  the  number  who 
yielded,  or  faltered,  was  comparatively  small ;  and  of  those  who, 
under  the  insupportable  agonies  and  distraction  of  the  scourge 
and  the  rack,  recanted,  or  promised  a  recantation,  a  large  pro- 
portion, immediately  on  being  released  from  the  sufferings 
which  had  overcome  them,  abjured  their  retractions,  reprofessed 
with  redoubled  energy  the  faith  of  Christ,  and  met  without  fal- 
tering the  hideous  death  to  which  they  were  immediately  hur- 
ried. Such  is  their  uniform  history  in  whatever  age  they  fell, 
or  to  whatever  nation  or  rank  they  belonged.  In  multitudes  of 
instances  the  young,  the  delicate,  the  beautiful,  the  cultured, 
who  had  been  nurtured  in  tenderness  and  refinement,  submitted 
to  be  torn  from  the  bosoms  of  their  parents  and  friends,  endured 
the  most  repulsive  and  shameful  tortures,  and  welcomed  the  gib- 
bet, the  axe,  and  the  flames,  with  a  sublimity  of  calmness,  for- 
titude, and  trust  in  God,  and  benignity  to  their  murderers,  worthy 
of  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  and  presenting  a  resistless  demonstra- 
tion that  they  were  animated  by  his  Spirit,  and  sustained  by  his 
power. 

Such  were  acknowledged  by  Bernard  and  others  of  that  age,  to 
be  the  characteristics  of  the  Albigenses.  Such,  it  was  admitted 
by  the  Catholic  historians,  was  the  character  of  the  Waldenses, 
the  Wicklifites,  the  Lollards,  and  the  Bohemians. 

It  was  most  conspicuously  a  trait  of  the  martyrs  of  Eng- 
land, not  only  under  Henry  VIII.  and  Mary,  but  in  an  equal 
degree  of  the  long  succession  of  Puritans,  who  were  imprisoned, 
mutilated,  tortured,  and  put  to  death,  by  Elizabeth  and  the 
Stuarts.  And  it  was  illustriously  the  character  of  the  vast  crowd 
of  the  faithful,  who  were  stretched  on  the  wheel  and  consigned 
to  the  flames  during  the  long  reign  of  the  Inquisition  in  Italy, 
Spain,  Portugal,  France,  the  Netherlands,  Germany,  Prussia, 

49 


386  THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST. 

Denmark,  Poland,  Sweden,  and  Hungary.  The  dreadful  en- 
gines of  torture  erected  by  that  bloody  tribunal,  are  themselves, 
indeed,  a  stupendous  proof  of  the  inflexible  fidelity  and  constancy 
of  their  victims  ;  for  they  were  contrived  and  employed  to  wrench 
from  them,  by  agonies  immeasurably  more  dreadful  than  death, 
concessions  and  retractions  which  could  not  be  induced  by  argu- 
ments or  persuasions,  nor  extorted  by  threats.  Acknowledgments 
from  the  whole  succession  of  persecutors  could  not  have  testi- 
fied with  so  emphatic  a  voice  the  unconquerable  fidelity  of  the 
witnesses  for  God,  as  it  is  proclaimed  by  the  erection  and  use  of 
those  infernal  instruments  to  force  them  to  apostasy. 

XIII.  The  triumphant  career  of  the  wild  beast  as  a  blas- 
phemer has  continued  through  nearly  twelve  hundred  and  sixty 
years. 

Its  agency  as  a  religious  tyrant  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  having 
commenced  at  its  emergence  from  the  sea,  but  at  its  full  as- 
sumption of  authority  over  religion,  nationalization  of  the  Catho- 
lic church,  and  concurrence  with  the  pope  in  enforcing  the  false 
doctrines  and  superstitions  of  that  apostate  on  its  subjects,  and 
persecuting  the  witnesses  of  Jesus  for  their  dissent ;  as  it  is  in 
that  relation  that  it  has  acted  as  a  blasphemer  of  God,  his  taber- 
nacle, and  his  saints.  And  on  that  it  did  not  enter  until  a  long 
period  after  its  emergence  from  the  sea.  The  first  princes  of 
each  of  the  ten  kingdoms,  and  their  barbarian  subjects,  being 
either  pagans  or  Arians,  were  hostile  to  the  native  Christians  ; 
and  for  a  century  in  Africa,  for  more  than  one  hundred  years  in 
Italy,  and  for  a  considerable  period  in  Spain,  France,  Germany, 
and  England,  were  persecutors  of  the  Catholics. 

Baronius  acknowledges  that  in  the  year  499  there  was  not  a 
single  Catholic  prince  within  the  limits  of  the  church.  "  Before 
I  lead  you  any  farther,  saddened  by  the  mournful  narrative,  pause 
a  moment  and  contemplate  the  state  of  the  church  at  this  time,  in 
which  not  a  single  thorough  Catholic  Christian  prince  could  be 
found  in  the  whole  circuit  of  the  earth  ;  for,  even  the  emperor 
Aiiastasius,  who  had  lurked  for  some  time  under  a  veil  of  Ca- 
tholicism, having  now  become  openly  known  as  a  heretic  and  an- 
tagonist of  the  Catholic  faith,  richly  deserved  the  excommunica- 
tion with  which  he  was  struck  by  the  Roman  pontiff,  although 
he  raged  still  more  violently  on  receiving  the  wound.  Who, 
considering  this,  would  not  have  been  depressed  with  the  expecta- 
tion that  the  spark  of  orthodoxy  was  to  be  extinguished  by  so  maiiy 
winds,  bursting  with  infuriate  violence  from  the  gates  of  hell  f"* 
'  Baronii  Annal.  aniio  499,  No.  xiv. 


THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST.  387 

In  that  year,  however,  Clovis,  king  of  the  Franks,  with  his 
nobles  and  people,  embraced  the  Catholic  faith,  and  nationalized 
tSie  church  by  restoring  to  it  the  property  which  had  been  wrest- 
ed from  it,  conferring  on  it  large  possessions,  countenancing  its 
false  doctrines  and  impious  rites,  and  at  length  fighting  to  propa- 
gate its  faith.  "  The  king  himself,  and  the  princes,  on  being 
baptized  with  the  whole  nation,  gave  a  great  number  of  estates, 
in  the  different  provinces,  to  St.  Remigius,  which  he  distributed 
to  the  different  churches."^  "  He  not  only  restored  to  all  the 
churches  of  his  kingdom  what  had  been  taken  from  them,  but 
also  enriched  a  great  number  of  them  by  his  own  bounty."^  He 
alleged  it  as  a  reason  of  his  war  in  507,  on  the  Goths  of  the 
south  of  France,  that  they  were  Arians.  "  It  annoys  me  ex- 
tremely that  these  Arians  hold  a  part  of  Gaul :  let  us  go,  and 
with  the  help  of  God,  conquer  them,  and  subject  their  country 
to  my  dominion."^  About  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  the 
princes  of  France  began  to  summon  the  councils  of  the  bishops, 
to  legislate  and  sanction  their  legislation  over  the  church,  and  to 
receive  their  concurrence  in  that  assumption  of  authority. 
Childebert  summoned  the  council  of  Orleans  in  549,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  legalizing  the  ancient,  and  enacting  new  canons  for  the 
government  of  the  church.  "  It  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  grace 
of  God,  when  the  will  of  princes  concurs  with  the  wishes  of  the 
bishops  that  a  pontifical  council  should  be  held,  and  the  ancient 
canons  be  constituted  by  re-adoption  a  rule  of  life,  or  new  laws 
enacted  in  harmony  with  them,  as  place  and  time  demand.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  most  clement  prince,  king  Childebert,  justly,  be- 
cause of  his  virtues,  entitled  invincible,  has,  out  of  regard  to  the 
holy  faith  and  the  state  of  religion,  assembled  the  priests  of  the 
Lord  in  the  city  of  Orleans,  that  he  may  hear  from  the  lips  of 
the  fathers  what  is  holy,  and  that  that  which  is  proposed  by 
them  for  the  government  of  the  church,  may  become  a  law  to 
ourselves  and  those  who  come  after  us."^  The  synod  according- 
ly adopted  the  canons  of  the  ancient  councils,  and  enacted  others 
to  correct  the  peculiar  evils  of  their  time.  Guntram  also  sum- 
moned several  synods,  ratified  by  an  edict  the  canons  enacted 
by  the  second  council  of  IMascon  in  585,  and  enjoined  the  magis- 
trates to  unite  with  the  bishops  in  enforcing  obedience  to  them, 
and  to  subdue  by  civil  penalties  those  who  were  not  won  by 
persuasion.^ 

Theodomir,    king  of   the    Suevi   in   Gallicia,  embraced  the 

'  Baronii  Annal.  an.  499,  No.  xxx.     ^  Ibid.  No.  xxxiii.      '  Ibid.  an.  507,  No.  xiii- 
«  Labbei  Coucil.  torn.  ix.  p.  128.  *  Ibid.  963. 


388  THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST. 

Catholic  faith,  and  summoned  a  council  in  569  to  legalize  it,  di- 
vide his  kingdom  into  provinces,  and  organize  a  more  adequate 
hierarchy.^ 

]n  589,  Reccared,  king  of  Spain,  renouncing  Arianisra  and  em- 
bracing the  Catholic  faith,  assembled  a  synod  at  Toledo  ;  ordered 
the  princes  and  bishops,  who  generally  had  before  been  Arians, 
to  adopt  it ;  constituted  it  the  national  religion,  and  assumed  the 
right  of  legislating  over  it.  "  After  the  subscription  by  the  bish- 
ops and  elders  of  the  whole  Gothic  nation  to  the  canons  of  the 
synod,  and  the  decrees  of  the  first  general  councils,  our  most  glo- 
rious lord  king  Reccared,  in  order  to  the  renovation  and  confirm- 
ation of  the  laws  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  addressed  the  prelates 
thus  :  '  Our  royal  care  ought  to  be  extended  to  the  cognizance 
of  truth  and  knowledge ;  for  the  more  gloriously  eminent  the 
regal  power  is  in  human  affairs,  the  greater  should  be  its  atten- 
tion to  the  well-being  of  the  subject.  And  now,  blessed  pre- 
lates, we  apply  our  thoughts,  not  to  those  things  alone  by  which 
the  people  placed  under  our  sway  may  live  and  be  ruled  peace- 
fully, but  as  an  auxiliary  of  Christ  extend  them  to  those  also 
which  are  celestial,  and  study  what  may  make  our  people  Chris- 
tians.' "2 

The  decrees  accordingly  by  which  all  decisions  and  canons  of 
the  early  councils  were  adopted,  the  letters  of  the  bishops  of 
Rome  incorporated  among  their  ecclesiastical  laws,  the  church 
invested  with  the  right  of  property,  celibacy  and  monkery  sanc- 
tioned, and  the  bishops  and  magistrates  required  to  persecute 
idolaters,  were  ratified  by  him,  and  enforced  by  the  penalties  of 
excommunication,  the  forfeiture  of  goods,  and  exile.  "All  these 
ecclesiastical  constitutions,  we  invest  with  perpetual  authority. 
If  any  one  refuses  obedience  to  them,  if  a  clergyman,  whether 
bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon,  let  him  be  excommunicated ;  if  a 
laic,  and  of  a  respectable  rank,  let  him  forfeit  half  of  his  goods 
to  the  treasury  ;  if  a  person  of  inferior  station,  let  him  be  amerced 
of  his  property,  and  dispatched  into  exile,"-^ 

The  Heruli,  Ostrogoths,  and  Lombards,  were  either  pagans 
or  Arians,  and  persecutors  of  the  Catholics.  It  was  not  until  the 
year  591,  twenty-three  years  after  the  subjugation  of  Italy  by 
the  latter,  that  Agilulf,  their  king,  embraced  the  faith  of  Pope 
Gregory,  adopted  the  Catholic  church,  endowed  it  with  wealth, 
and  raised  its  bishops  to  their  former  honors.  "  Through  queen 
Theudelinda,  the  church  of  God  obtained  many  benefits,  for  the 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  ix.  p.  815.  '  Ibid.  torn.  ix.  p.  989. 

» Ibid.  torn.  ix.  p.  1000. 


THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST.  389 

Lombards  while  still  pagans  had  seized  almost  all  its  estates  ;  but 
the  king  moved  by  her  entreaty  adopted  the  Catholic  faith,  be- 
stowed many  possessions  on  the  church,  and  restored  the  bish- 
ops, who  were  depressed  and  discouraged,  to  their  accustomed 
dignity."^  "  After  a  reign  of  twenty-five  years  king  Agilulf  died 
in  615,  leaving  his  kingdom  to  his  young  son  Adaloald,  with  his 
mother  Theudelinda,  under  whom  the  churches  were  restored, 
and  the  sacred  places  enriched  with  many  donations."^ 

The  monks  sent  by  pope  Gregory  for  the  purpose  of  convert- 
ing the  pagans  of  England,  reached  that  island  in  596,  and  being 
allowed  by  Ethelbert,  king  of  Kent  and  bretwalda,  or  head  of 
the  heptarchy,  to  preach  in  his  dominions,  they  in  the  following 
year  induced  him  and  a  large  body  of  his  subjects  to  embrace 
Christianity,  and  he  proceeded,  within  a  few  years,  to  organize  a 
hierarchy  and  endow  the  church.  Augustine  was  made  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  and  one  of  his  associates  of  York,  and 
twelve  diocesans  were  instituted  in  each  of  those  provinces.  In 
604,  the  king  of  Essex  also  received  baptism,  and  instituted  a 
bishop  of  his  capital.  "  In  605,  king  Ethelbert  being  confirmed 
in  the  Catholic  faith,  celebrated  Christmas  at  Canterbury,  with 
Bertha  the  queen,  their  son  Eadbald,  the  reverend  prelate  Au- 
gustine, and  other  primates,  and  assembling  a  council  of  the 
clergy  and  people,  with  their  approbation  and  consent,  gave  the 
monastery  of  Peter  and  Paul  with  its  endowments,  through  Au- 
gustine, to  God,  and  the  monks  who  were  to  serve  him  in  it ; 
enriched  it  with  many  estates  and  other  ample  gifts  ;  put  a  com- 
pany of  monks  in  possession  of  it,  and  appointed  Peter  to  be  the 
abbot,  expressing  himself  thus  :  '  In  the  name  of  our  Lord  Je- 
sus Christ,  be  it  known  to  all,  now  and  hereafter,  that  I,  Ethel- 
bert, by  the  grace  of  God  king  of  the  English,  having  been 
converted  from  idol-worship  to  Christianity  by  my  spiritual  fa- 
ther Augustine,  have  given  to  God  through  his  priests,  a  certain 
part  of  my  land  along  the  east  wall  of  the  city  of  Canterbury, 
where  I  have  erected  a  monastery  in  honor  of  the  great  apostles 
Peter  and  Paul,  and  granted  the  land,  and  every  thing  that  per- 
tains to  the  monastery,  perpetual  independence  ;  so  that  it  shall 
not  be  lawful  either  for  me  or  any  successor  to  my  kingdom,  or 
any  person,  whether  secular  or  ecclesiastical,  to  usurp  any  thing 
from  it ;  but  all  are  to  be  by  absolute  gift  the  possession  of  its 
abbots  :  and  should  any  one  detract  any  thing  from  this  our  do- 
nation, or  attempt  to  make  it  void,  let  him  by  the  authority  of 
God,  our  blessed  pope  Gregory,  and  our  apostle  Augustine,  and 

'  P.  Wamefridi  de  Gest.  Lougobard.  lib.  iv.  c.  6.  ^  Ibid.  lib.  iv.  c.  43. 


390  THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST. 

also  by  our  malediction,  be  separated  from  the  communion  of 
the  holy  church,  and  in  the  day  of  judgment  from  the  society  of 
the  elect.' "' 

When  the  king  of  the  Lombards  and  the  bretwalda  of  the  An- 
glo-Saxons, thus  embraced  the  faith  of  the  pope,  the  heads  of 
all  the  conquering  tribes  then  reigning  in  the  western  empire, 
were  Catholics,  and  united  in  assuming  the  peculiar  relations  of 
the  wild  beast,  by  the  arrogation  of  legislative  and  judicial  au- 
thority over  religion,  and  the  nationalization  of  their  churches  ; 
and  the  commencement  of  their  agency  as  blasphemers,  is  prob- 
ably to  be  dated  at  that  period  ;  although  the  station  of  bretwalda 
was  afterwards  held  a  few  years  by  Edwin  king  of  Norlhumbria, 
before  his  conversion  in  626.^  They  began  at  about  that  period 
to  act  in  conjunction  with  the  pope,  solicit  his  counsel,  and  ac- 
knowledge his  claims  to  authority.  The  bishop  of  London  vis- 
ited Rome  in  610,  to  consult  with  Boniface  IV.,  in  behalf  of  his 
king  probably,  and  of  Elhelbert,  in  respect  to  the  churches  and 
monasteries  in  their  dominions  ;  and  on  his  return  carried  letters 
from  the  pope  to  Ethelbert,  in  which  he  assumes  authority  over 
that  prince  and  his  prelates,  and  threatens  them  with  excommu- 
nication should  they  violate  his  decrees.  "  We  willingly  concede 
what  you  have  solicited  of  the  apostolic  seat  by  our  fellow-bishop 
Mellitus,  that  your  benignity  should  appoint  the  residence  of  all 
regularly  living  monks  in  the  monastery,  instead  of  the  city  of 
Dover,  which  your  holy  teacher  Augustine,  the  disciple  of  pope 
Gregory,  consecrated  to  the  name  of  the  divine  Saviour,  and 
over  which  our  brother  Laurentius  now  presides,  decreeing  by 
apostolic  authority,  that  the  preaching  monks  may  associate  with 
themselves  a  company  of  monks,  and  adorn  their  life  with  holy 
manners  ;  which  decree  should  any  king  of  your  successors,  any 
bishop,  clergyman,  or  laic,  attempt  to  make  void,  he  shall  lay 
under  the  bond  of  an  anathema  by  Peter  the  prince  of  the  apos- 
tles, and  all  his  successors,  as  long  as  he  persists  in  his  pre- 
sumptuous attempt,  and  shall  undergo  such  penance  as  shall 
propitiate  God,  and  thoroughly  remedy  the  disturbance."^ 

Clotaire,  king  of  the  Franks,  in  615  summoned  a  council  to 
renew  the  canons  of  the  ancient  councils,  and  enact  others  :  and 
ratified  their  decrees  by  w-hich  ecclesiastics  were  exempted  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  civil  judges,  the  churches  confirmed  in 
their  right  of  receiving  and  holding  property,  and  the  whole  sys- 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  x.  p.  498. 

*  Lingard's  Hist.  England,  vol.  i.  pp.  116-125. 

*  Labbei  Coucil.  toni.  x.  pp.  505,  506. 


THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST.  391 

tern  of  ecclesiastical  discipline  enforced.^  By  the  fourth  canon 
of  the  council  of  Rheims,  held  about  630,  the  pastors  of  the 
churches  in  Gaul  were  required  to  examine  those  who  were  sus- 
pected of  heresy  in  that  kingdom,  and  if  they  were  found  to  be 
truly  such,  to  recall  them  to  the  Catholic  faith.^ 

In  like  manner  the  king  of  Spain  assembled  a  synod  in  633, 
m  order  to  enforce  the  failh  and  discipline  of  the  Catholic  church, 
and  the  kings  of  the  several  nations  continued  in  that  manner, 
through  the  ages  that  followed,  to  arrogate  authority  over  the 
laws  and  people  of  God,  and  sanction  the  assumptions,  false  doc- 
trines, and  idolatrous  worship  of  the  apostate  church. 

The  popes  assumed  at  the  same  period,  a  vast  authority  over 
the  church  and  religion,  and  required  submission  to  their  will 
from  ecclesiastics  and  princes.  Gregory,  in  his  letter  to  Theo- 
deric,  king  of  the  Franks,  in  601,  representing  that  prince  as 
having  expressed  a  readiness  to  follow  his  counsels,  exhorted  him 
to  use  his  authority  to  promote  respect  for  the  church  and  pre- 
lates, by  assembling  a  synod,  and  correcting  the  faults  of  the 
clergy.  "  Since  you  have  signified  that  you  are  pleased  with  our 
exhortations,  that  you  should  carefully  ordain  whatever  you  know 
is  requisite  to  the  service  of  God,  the  reverence  of  the  church, 
and  the  honor  of  the  priests,  and  wish  should  be  uniformly  ob- 
served ;  we  repeat  our  suggestions,  and  for  your  good  chiefly, 
and  urge  you  to  order  a  synod  to  be  assembled,  and  by  a  sen- 
tence of  all  the  bishops,  condemn  the  sensuality  of  the  clergy 
and  simony,  and  cause  them  to  be  extirpated  from  your  king- 
dom."^ He  addressed  similar  letters  to  the  French  kings  Theo- 
debert  and  Clotaire,^  and  also  to  Ethelbert  of  England,  exhort- 
ing him  to  exert  his  authority  to  suppress  idolatry,  and  spread 
the  Christian  failh  among  his  people  ;  sent  the  pall  to  Augus- 
tine ;  and  gave  him  authority  to  ordain  twelve  bishops  within  the 
province  of  Canterbury,  who  were  to  be  under  his  jurisdiction  ; 
and  to  institute  whoever  he  pleased  archbishop  of  York,  with 
authority  to  ordain  the  same  number  of  diocesans  in  that  prov- 
ince.^ And  if  the  eighth  and  ninth  letters  ascribed  to  him  of  the 
year  604  be  genuine,  he  arrogated  the  power  of  divesting  princes 
and  prelates  who  disregarded  his  decrees,  of  authority,  and  sub- 
jecting them  to  the  divine  vengeance.  "  If  any  king,  priest,  judge, 
or  secular  person,  knowing  this  to  be  our  decree,  shall  dare  to 

*  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  x.  pp.  539-544.  '  Ibid.  torn.  x.  p.  594. 

*  Gregorii  Epist.  59,  lib.  xi.  lad.  iv.  p.  1145. 

*  Ibid.  Epist.  CO,  61,  lib.  xi.  Ind.  iv.  pp.  1146,  1147. 

*  Ibid.  Epist.  65,  66,  lib.  xi.  Ind.  iv.  pp.  1163,  1164. 


392  THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST. 

violate  it,  let  him  lose  his  authority  and  honor,  and  know  that  he 
is  obnoxious  to  divine  judgment ;  and  unless  he  restore  what  he 
has  taken  away,  or  undergo  a  suitable  penance,  let  him  be  de- 
barred from  the  body  and  blood  of  the  Redeemer,  and  subjected 
to  eternal  vengeance.  But  the  peace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Clwist 
be  with  all  who  appropriately  observe  it,  so  that  they  may  re- 
ceive fruit  here  of  their  good  conduct,  and  obtain  from  the  rigor- 
ous judge  the  reward  of  eternal  rest."^  The  popes  who  followed 
Gregory  assumed  still  more  conspicuously  the  relation  of  law- 
givers to  tiie  church,  and  the  monarchs  in  the  western  empire 
co-operated  still  more  openly  and  efficiently  in  supporting  their 
usurpations  and  idolatries,  and  enforcing  them  on  their  subjects. 

Whether,  then,  the  agency  of  the  wild  beast  as  a  blasphemer, 
is  to  be  regarded  as  having  commenced  with  the  arrogation  of 
power  over  the  church  by  Ethelbert  in  597,  or  at  a  somewhat 
later  period,  it  has  indisputably  acted  in  that  character  through 
nearly  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years. 

It  is  a  sufficient  refutation  of  the  absurd  exposition  given  by 
Grotius,  Dr.  Hammond,  and  RosenmuUer,  who  exhibit  the  wild 
beast  as  representing  idolatry,  that  it  is  against  the  law  of  sym- 
bolization,  living  agents  never  being  used  as  symbols  of  mere 
modes  of  agency,  and  having  no  analogy  that  can  fit  them  to  be 
their  representative. 

The  assumption  of  Mr.  Mede,  Di'.  Cressener,  Sir  Isaac  New- 
ton, Dr.  More,  Mr.  Whiston,  Vitringa,  Bishop  Newton,  Dean 
Woodhouse,  Mr.  Faber,  Mr.  Cuninghame,  Mr.  Elliott,  and  in- 
deed, excepting  the  followers  of  Grotius,  nearly  the  whole  suc- 
cession of  commentators,  that  the  wild  beast  is  the  symbol  of 
an  empire,  is  equally  erroneous ;  whether  it  be  used,  as  by  Mr. 
Faber,  to  denote  the  territory,  or,  as  by  Cocceius,  the  population 
of  an  empire.  The  first  is  against  analogy  ;  the  other,  irrecon- 
cilable with  the  representations  of  the  passage.  There  is  the 
clearest  discrimination  between  the  wild  beast  and  the  popula- 
tion over  whom  it  tyrannizes.  It  is  worshipped  by  all  who  dwell 
on  the  earth,  whose  name  is  not  written  in  the  book  of  life  of 
the  Lamb.  It  cannot  be  a  representative  of  those  worshippers 
therefore.  That  were  to  make  it  both  the  adorer,  and  the  object 
of  its  adoration.  Authority  is  given  to  it  over  every  tribe  and 
people,  and  tongue  and  nation.  It  cannot  be  the  representative 
then  of  those  classes.  That  were  to  make  it  both  monarch,  and 
the  subjects  of  its  monarchy.  The  saints  moreover  who  do  not 
worship  it,  and  whom  it  persecutes,  are  inhabitants  of  its  terri- 
'  Gregorii  Epist.  9,  lib.  xiii.  Ind.  vi.  p.  1225. 


THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST.  393 

tory.  To  suppose  it  to  represent  the  whole  population  of  an 
empire  therefore,  were  to  exhibit  it  as  a  representative  of  those 
who  are  wholly  opposite  to  it  in  character,  who  disown  its 
usurped  authority,  and  whom  it  destroys  as  enemies  of  its  sway; 
which  were  solecistical.  It  is  the  symbol  then  of  the  rulers  of 
an  empire,  not  of  an  empire  itself,  or  its  population. 

As  the  head  of  an  animal,  the  seat  of  perception,  sensibility, 
and  volition,  presides  over  all  its  other  members,  and  directs 
their  movements ;  so  the  heads  of  this  monster  symbolize  the 
chiefs  of  that  combination  of  rulers,  of  which  it  is  at  large  the 
representative,  during  the  period  of  the  diadems  on  the  heads. 
The  seven  heads,  it  is  said,  chap.  xvii.  10,  are  seven  kings  ;  and 
as  a  symbol  when  a  representative  of  men,  is  universally  a  rep- 
resentative of  a  combination  or  succession  of  persons,  and  as 
no  ground  but  a  diversity  of  kind  can  be  supposed  for  their 
discrimination,  each  of  the  seven  heads  must  be  regarded  as 
denoting  both  a  peculiar  kind  of  supreme  magistrates,  and  a 
succession  or  dynasty  of  its  own  kind ;  and  dynasties,  not  that 
are  cotemporaneous,  but  that  follow  each  other, — as  five,  it  is 
said  at  the  period  of  the  visions,  are  fallen,  one  is,  and  one  is 
not  yet  come.  The  horns  also  are  kings,  and  representatives 
of  the  successions  of  monarchs  or  chiefs  of  the  body  of  rulers, 
of  which  the  beast  at  large  is  the  symbol,  during  the  period  of 
the  diadems  on  the  horns;  as  is  apparent  from  the  considerations 
already  mentioned,  and  from  their  continuance  through  the  pe- 
riod of  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years.  These  characteristics 
refute,  therefore,  all  those  expositors  who,  like  Mr.  Daubuz,  ex- 
hibit the  heads  as  symbols  of  cities,  or,  like  Mr.  Keith,  of  suc- 
cessive kingdoms. 

The  empire,  of  whose  rulers  the  wild  beast  is  the  symbol,  is 
manifestly,  from  many  considerations,  the  Roman.  It  is  an 
empire  that  Avas  subsisting  when  the  Apostle  beheld  the  visions, 
which  had  already  flourished  through  a  long  period,  which  was 
to  continue  under  its  dragon  rule  a  considerable  space  longer, 
and  was  then  to  be  subjected  to  this  wild  beast's  dominion  under 
the  direction  of  the  horns,  and  subsist  under  that  sway  through 
twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years.  Five  of  its  heads  were  already 
fallen,  one  then  was,  and  the  other  had  not  yet  come.  But 
there  is  no  other  than  the  Roman  empire  of  which  those  pecu- 
liarities can  be  affirmed  ; — a  subsistence  at  that  period,  and  un- 
der a  sixth  form  of  government — a  continuance  under  that  sixth 
and  a  seventh  form,  through  a  still  further  period — a  division 
then  into  ten  kingdoms,  and  subsistence  under  at  least  eight  co- 

50 


394  THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST. 

temporary  dynasties,  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years  ;  with  such 
resemblances  of  laws,  religion,  manners,  and  policy,  as  to  entitle 
them  to  be  represented  as  still  one  empire — and  finally,  uniting  in 
such  an  agency  towards  God  and  towards  his  worshippers,  as  that 
which  is  ascribed  to  them  in  this  delineation.  An  express  de- 
signation by  its  name,  could  not  have  rendered  it  more  certain 
that  it  is  the  Roman  empire.  No  other  ever  subsisted,  in  which, 
disregarding  all  others,  the  two  great  peculiarities  denoted  by 
the  heads  and  the  horns  were  united. 

It  is  the  empire  which  embraced  the  apocalyptic  earth,  the 
scene  of  the  actors  and  agencies  denoted  by  the  symbols  ;  for  it 
embraced  the  regions  in  which  the  worshippers  of  God  then 
subsisted,  and  were  to  continue  to  subsist  and  suffer  persecution 
through  a  long  tract  of  ages,  and  in  which  the  great  body  of  the 
church  was  to  apostatize  to  superstition  and  idolatry,  become 
new  modelled  under  civil  and  ecclesiastical  rulers,  and  exist 
through  many  centuries  in  intimate  connection  with  a  combina- 
tion of  usurping,  tyrannical,  and  bloody  monarchies  ; — and  is, 
therefore,  the  Roman  empire  ;  as  it  was  in  that  that  the  churches 
were  situated  to  which  the  Apocalypse  was  addressed  ;  and  in 
that  empire  alone,  that  churches  subsisted  from  that  period  with- 
out interruption  through  a  long  succession  of  centuries ;  and  that 
the  visible  church  became  nationalized,  apostatized  to  idols,  and 
existed  in  intimate  relations  with  the  rulers  symbolized  by  the  ten- 
horned  wild  beast.  No  other  empire  can  present  the  slightest 
pretences  to  be  the  scene  of  those  peculiar  actors  and  agencies. 

It  is,  finally,  the  fourth  empire  of  Daniel,  manifestly  from  the 
similarity  of  the  symbols  and  their  agency,  and  is  therefore  the 
Roman  ;  as  the  Roman  was  that  fourth  empire,  indisputably 
from  its  following  and  conquering  the  third — from  its  coinciding 
in  all  its  characteristics  with  the  peculiarities  of  that  empire's 
symbol — from  its  being  the  only  empire  that  presents  any  sucii 
resemblances — and  from  its  destiny,  like  that,  to  destruction 
immediately  before  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  the 
saints. 

The  commentators  who  regard  the  wild  beast  as  symbolizing 
the  Roman  empire,  unite  generally  in  exhibiting  the  forms  of 
government  which  its  first  six  heads  denote  as  the  kingly,  con- 
sular, dictatorial,  decemviral,  tribunitial,  and  imperial ;  but  differ 
in  respect  to  the  seventh.  Some  have  assigned  that  station 
to  the  popes.  But  their  dynasty  was  never  the  civil  head  of 
the  Roman  empire,  either  before  or  after  its  fall ;  and  cannot, 
therefore,  be  the  class  of  rulers  denoted  by  its  seventh  head. 


THE  TEN-HORNEB  WILD  BEAST.  395 

They  did  not  become  civil  rulers  of  any  part  of  that  empire 
until  after  its  subversion,  and  the  emergence  from  its  ruins  of 
the  ten  kingdoms.  They  are  exhibited  in  the  vision  of  Daniel 
as  springing  up  after  tlie  ten  horns,  and  that  is  the  representation 
also  universally  of  the  historians  of  their  origin  as  political 
rulers.  The  eleventh  horn,  by  which  they  are  symbolized  in 
that  vision,  is  represented  as  small  in  comparison  with  the  other 
horns,  and  tlience  cannot  be  the  same  with  that  which  symbol- 
izes the  rulers  of  the  whole  empire.  They  are  symbohzed  by 
the  two-horned  wild  beast  of  the  Apocalypse,  which  is  cotem- 
porary  with  the  ten-horned  wild  beast,  sustains  towards  it  im- 
portant relations,  and  exerts  towards  it  and  its  subjects  important 
agencies ;  and  cannot,  therefore,  be  one  of  its  heads.  And 
finally,  the  seventh  head  was  to  continue  but  a  short  time,  but 
the  papal  rule  has  subsisted  through  a  longer  period  than  that  of 
the  first  six  heads  united. 

Dr.  Cressener  and  some  others,  regarded  the  Gothic  kings  who 
reigned  at  Rome  a  short  period  after  the  abdication  of  Augus- 
tulus,  as  the  seventh  head.  But  they  were  never  the  head  of 
the  Roman  empire  in  any  sense — first,  as  their  reign  was  sub- 
sequent to  its  subversion  ;  and  next,  as  they  reigned  by  the  former 
laws  of  the  empire  so  far  as  they  made  them  their  guide,  not 
by  any  conditions  of  their  office,  but  only  as  they  chose  to  adopt 
them. 

Mr.  Mede  regarded  the  Latin  emperors,  after  the  division  of 
the  empire  into  the  eastern  and  western,  as  tiie  seventh  head. 
But  that  is  to  exhibit  the  sixth  and  seventh  heads  as  cotempora- 
neous,  which  is  solecistical,  and  contradictory  to  the  representa- 
tion in  the  seventeenth  chapter,  that  those  heads  were  succes- 
sive. 

Cocceius  regarded  the  beast  as  the  symbol  of  the  Roman 
people  as  falsely  professing  Christianity  ;  the  seven  heads  as 
representing  the  five  ecclesiastical  patriarchs  of  Alexandria,  Je- 
rusalem, Antioch,  Constantinople,  and  Rome,  and  the  synods  of 
Gaul  and  Spain  ;  and  the  ten  horns  as  denoting  kings  of  the 
ten  European  kingdoms.  But  that  exposition  of  the  heads  con- 
tradicts the  text,  by  making  the  beast  the  symbol  of  those  who 
worship  it — by  representing  the  first  five  heads  that  iiad  fallen 
at  the  period  of  the  visions  as  still  future — and  finally,  by  making 
the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  heads,  symbols  of  persons  who  are 
represented  by  the  two-horned  wild  beast  and  the  image. 

Mr.  Faber  regards  Bonaparte,  the  head  of  the  French  empire, 
as  the  seventh  head.     But  that  is  to  exhibit  the  seventh  head  as 


396  THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST. 

the  same  as  one  of  the  ten  horns,  which  is  irreconcilable  with 
the  symbol.  It  is  to  exhibit  the  ^seventh  head  as  ruling  the  em- 
pire, in  the  same  sense,  during  the  sway  of  the  ten  horns,  as  it 
was  ruled  by  the  previous  heads  anterior  to  the  rise  of  the 
horns  ;  which  is  inconsistent  with  the  symbol.  It  is  to  exhibit 
the  period  of  the  seventh  head's  rule  as  wholly  after  the  diadems 
on  the  heads  had  been  superseded  by  diadems  on  the  horns, 
which  is  also  to  contradict  the  symbol. 

Mr.  Elliott  regards  the  seventh  head  as  constituted  from  the 
sixth,  by  the  adoption  or  creation  of  a  second  or  associate  Au- 
gustus by  Diocletian.  But  that  did  not  essentially  alter  the  na- 
ture of  the  rule.  The  mode  of  appointment  to  the  station  of 
Augustus  and  Caesar,  continued  the  same  as  before  ;  the  ground 
and  extent  of  the  imperial  authority,  the  laws  and  the  mode  of 
enacting  them  ;  and  it  is  refuted  by  the  implication  which  it 
presents,  that  the  seventh  head,  instead  of  but  a  single,  received 
several  death-wounds.  If  the  union  of  two  Augusti  constituted 
the  seventh  head,  then  the  fall  of  one  and  the  return  of  the  im- 
perial rule  to  the  hands  of  an  individual,  must  have  been  its 
death.  But  there  were  several  periods  after  the  abdication  of 
Diocletian,  when  the  sceptre  was  held  by  a  single  Augustus. 
Constantino  himself  had  no  such  associate  after  the  fall  of  Li- 
cinius ;  nor  had  Constantius,  after  the  death  of  his  brothers ; 
nor  Jovian,  Valentinian,Valens,  Gratian,  or  Theodosius  the  Great, 
during  a  portion  of  their  reigns.  That  author,  indeed,  exhibits 
paganism,  as  the  seventh  head  that  was  wounded  to  death.  But 
that  is  to  contradict  his  exposition  of  the  beast  as  a  symbol  of  the 
Roman  empire,  and  of  its  heads  as  representing  its  forms  of 
government.  It  is  inconsistent  with  analogy  also ;  paganism 
being,  not  a  combination  of  successive  agents,  but  a  mere  mode 
of  agency,  or  system  of  false  faith  and  worship,  and  cannot 
therefore  be  symbolized  by  a  living  agent,  which  is  a  represen- 
tative of  living  agents  only,  not  of  mere  modes  of  faith  or  action. 

But  the  characteristics  of  the  seventh  head  are  found  only  in 
Constantino  and  his  successors.  He  introduced,  by  the  recogni- 
tion and  adoption  of  the  Christian  religion,  a  new  principle  into 
the  government,  placed  his  own  authority  in  a  degree,  and  many 
of  the  rights  of  the  people  on  new  grounds,  and  clianged  the  re- 
lations of  the  throne  to  every  one  of  his  subjects.  Idolatry  had 
before  been  the  religion  of  the  state  ;  but  he  made  Christianity 
an  element  of  the  constitution  and  a  basis  of  power,  and  wrought 
thereby  at  length  a  revolution  in  the  laws  and  administration  of 
the  empire.     It  was  pre-eminently  a  political  change,  and  in  that 


THE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST.  397 

relation  marked  by  more  important  peculiarities  than  distinguish- 
ed either  of  the  forms  of  rule  under  the  other  six  heads.  Tiiough 
nominally  Christian,  yet  it  is  justly  exhibited  as  a  dragon  head  ; 
inasmuch  as  like  its  predecessor,  it  usurped  the  throne  of  God,- 
demanding  a  religious  homage  of  itself,  and  arrogating  the  riglit 
to  dictate  the  failli  and  worship  of  its  subjects,  and  because  it 
continued  the  worship  of  false  deities  and  sanctioned  it  in  others. 
The  interruption  of  the  succession  of  Christian  emperors  by  the 
elevation  of  Julian,  a  zealous  and  bigoted  pagan,  who  re-estab- 
lished the  ancient  polytheism,  and  endeavored  to  exterminate 
Christianity,  and  the  speedy  restoration  of  the  Christian  line  in 
Jovian,  were  such  events  as  the  death  wound  and  recovery  of 
the  seventh  head  were  adapted  to  represent,  and  were  the  only 
events  of  that  nature  that  marked  that  dynasty.  And  finally, 
this  construction  is  confirmed  by  the  representation  in  a  subse- 
quent verse,  that  the  image  which  was  made  to  the  beast  of  ten 
horns,  was  an  image  of  the  beast  in  that  form  in  which  it  existed 
when  it  received  the  death  wound ;  as  that  image,  as  will  be 
shown,  was  an  ecclesiastical  government,  or  organization  of  ec- 
clesiastical rulers  and  teachers  in  the  eight  kingdoms,  essentially 
like  that  established  by  the  papal  horn  in  its  own  dominion  ;  and 
the  head  of  the  beast  accordingly  after  which  it  was  modelled, 
was  that  of  Constantine  and  his  successors,  by  whom  the  church 
was  first  organized  in  a  similar  manner,  and  raised  to  a  similar 
relation  to  the  state. 

Commentators  vary  in  their  views  of  the  kingdoms  whose  kings 
are  denoted  by  the  ten  horns,  and  the  period  of  the  wild  beast's 
emergence  from  the  sea.  Its  emergence  took  place  doubtless  at 
the  moment  of  the  formation  of  the  last  of  the  ten  kingdoms,  as 
tiie  horns  were  seen  with  their  diadems  on  its  egress  from  the  sea  ; 
and  as  was  natural  and  is  implied  in  the  order  in  which  tliey  are 
mentioned,  before  the  heads  became  visible.  So  it  is  said  chap- 
ter xvii.  12,  that  those  with  which  it  is  to  rise  out  of  hades,  receive 
their  power  the  same  hour  with  the  beast.  The  rule  of  the  empire 
was  reconstructed  so  as  to  be  a  counterpart  to  the  wild  beast 
its  representative,  when  the  territory  being  all  conquered  by 
the  Goths  and  the  Roman  rule  extinguished,  its  population  was 
finst  distributed  under  ten  separate  governments.  That  distribu- 
tion is  assigned  by  Mr.  Mede  to  the  year  456,  which  is  doubtless 
too  early,  as  it  was  anterior  to  the  subversion  of  the  western  empire 
by  the  Ostrogoths.  Dr.  AUix  refers  it  to  the  year  486,  which  is  too 
late,  as  it  was  ten  years  subsequentto  the  termination  of  the  imperial 
power,  and  transition  of  the  whole  territory  to  the  Gothic  sway. 


398  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

SECTION    XXXII. 

CHAPTER    XIII.    11-18. 
THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST  AND  THE   IMAGE. 

And  I  saw  another  wild  beast  ascending  from  the  earth.  And  it 
had  two  horns  hke  a  lamb  ;  and  it  spake  as  a  dragon.  And  it  exer- 
cises all  the  power  of  the  first  wild  beast  in  its  presence.  And  it 
causes  the  earth,  and  those  who  inhabit  it,  to  worship  the  first  wild 
beast  whose  death  wound  was  healed.  And  it  works  great  wonders, 
so  that  it  can  even  make  fire  to  descend  from  heaven  to  the  earth 
before  men  ;  and  can  deceive  those  who  dwell  on  the  earth,  through 
the  wonders  which  are  given  to  it  to  work  before  the  wild  beast ; 
telling  those  who  dwell  on  the  earth,  to  make  an  image  to  the  wild 
beast  which  has  the  wound  of  the  sword  and  lived.  And  it  was 
given  to  it  to  give  breath  to  the  image  of  the  wild  beast,  that  the  im- 
age of  the  wild  beast  should  both  speak,  and  cause  that  as  many  as 
would  not  worship  the  image  of  the  wild  beast,  should  be  killed. 
And  it  causes  all,  the  small  and  the  great,  and  the  rich  and  the  poor, 
and  the  free  and  the  enslaved,  to  give  to  themselves  a  mark  on  their 
right  hand,  or  on  their  forehead  ;  and  that  no  one  should  be  able  to 
buy  or  to  sell,  except  he  who  has  the  mark,  the  name  of  the  wild 
beast,  or  the  number  of  its  name.  Here  is  wisdom.  Let  him  who 
has  understanding  compute  the  number  of  the  wild  beast,  for  it  is  a 
number  of  a  man,  and  its  number  six  hundred  sixty-six. 

The  land  or  earth  when  distinguished  from  the  sea,  denotes 
the  population  of  an  empire  under  a  settled  government,  anterior 
to  an  invasion  or  revolution,  as  in  the  symbols  of  the  first  trum- 
pet and  first  vial :  and  when  distinguished,  as  in  the  second  verse 
of  this  passage,  from  those  who  inhabit  it,  appears  to  represent 
its  native  population  in  discrimination  from  its  conquerors.  The 
ascent  of  this  wild  beast  from  the  earth  therefore,  signifies  that 
it  drew  its  origin  from  the  native  population  of  the  empire  ;  not 
from  the  foreigners  who  conquered  it,  and  erected  the  ten  king- 
doms out  of  its  ruins.  It  was  not  the  creature  of  the  Gothic  na- 
tions. It  sprung  not  from  their  faith,  their  manners,  or  their 
policy.  Instead,  it  was  generated  by  the  Latins,  whom  they 
conquered,  and  was  the  otlspring  of  the  corrupt  faith,  tlie  infat- 
uated superstition,  and  the  impious  ambition,  with  which  that 
people  had  become  infected  before  the  subversion  of  their  empire. 

It  had  two  horns,  the  symbols  of  a  twofold  monarchy  or  rule  ; 
and  like  a  lamb's,  apparently  for  ornament  merely  and  defence, 


AND  THE  IMAGE. 


399 


not  for  aggression.  But  it  spake  as  a  dragon,  an  aggressive,  car- 
nivorous, insatiable,  and  merciless  brute.  It  exercises  all  the 
powder  of  the  first  v^^ild  beast ;  similar  power  as  a  civil  ruler 
and  tyrant  of  its  vassals  ;  similar  power  as  an  ambitious  and 
lawless  warrior  ;  similar  power  as  a  usurper  of  dominion  over 
the  rights  of  God,  and  the  obligations  and  consciences  of  its  sub- 
jects ;  and  it  exercises  that  power  in  the  presence  of  the  ten- 
horned  wild  beast ;  cotemporaneously  willi  it  therefore,  by  its 
allowance,  and  with  its  sanction. 

It  excites  the  earth,  the  native  Latin  population,  and  they  who 
inhal)it  it,  the  Gothic  nations  who  became  their  conquerors,  to 
worship  the  wild  beast,  whose  death  wound  was  healed.  The 
introduction  here,  and  the  repetition  in  a  subsequent  verse,  of 
this  mark  of  the  wild  beast,  denotes  that  the  rulers  of  the  empire, 
whom  the  people  were  excited  to  worship,  were  those  who  were 
represented  by  the  head  that  received  the  death  wound,  and  im- 
plies that  their  peculiarities  were  eminently  congenial  to  the 
principles  and  passions  of  this  two-horned  wild  beast,  and  that  it 
for  that  reason  desired  to  render  them  characteristics  also  of  the 
new  monarchies  of  the  empire. 

It  works  great  wonders.  It  exerts  acts  and  produces  ap- 
pearances that  seem  to  be  miraculous,  and  which  it  pretends  are 
proofs  that  it  enjoys  the  co-operation  and  sanction  of  the  Al- 
mighty ;  as  the  descent  of  fire  from  heaven,  by  which  their  sacri- 
fices were  consumed,  was  a  proof  that  the  ancient  prophets  acted 
by  his  authority.  By  the  pretended  miracles  which  it  works  in 
the  presence  of  the  rulers  of  the  kingdoms,  it  deceives  the  con- 
quering nations  into  the  conviction  that  it  is  truly  a  prophet  of 
God,  and  possesses  the  prerogatives  which  it  claims ;  and  through 
the  nifluence  it  thus  attains,  prompts  them  to  make  an  image  to 
the  wild  beast  which  has  the  wound  of  a  sword  and  lived.  As 
that  beast  symbolized  a  combination  and  succession  of  persons 
who  were  the  legal  rulers  of  the  empire,  and  exercised  its  gov- 
ernment ;  an  image  to  that  official  and  authoritative  organization, 
must  be  a  resembling  organization  in  some  other  department  of 
life  ;  and  the  religious  therefore,  as  that  is  the  only  one  besides 
the  civil  and  military,  which  the  wild  beast  itself  represented. 
An  image  is  not  of  tlie  same  nature  as  that  which  it  represents. 
It  is  only  of  the  same  form,  and  expressive  of  the  same  charac- 
teristics. This  image  is  an  image  to  the  first  wild  beast  under 
its  ten  horns.  It  is  its  cotemporary  and  rival  therefore  under  the 
reign  of  the  horns.  The  wild  beast  of  which  it  is  the  image,  is 
that  wild  beast  under  the  reign  of  its  seventh  head.     To  prompt 


400  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

the  Gotliic  conquerors  to  make  an  image  of  that  wild  beast,  un- 
der its  head  that  received  a  death  wound,  was  accordingly  to 
prompt  them  to  erect  an  ecclesiastical  goven^ment  or  hierarchy, 
coextensive  with  their  territories,  and  embracing  a  regular  gra- 
dation of  ranks,  like  the  government  of  the  empire  under  Con- 
stantine  and  his  successors,  founded  on  similar  principles,  and 
animated  by  a  similar  spirit.     That  involved  an  arrogation  of  do- 
minion over  the  religion  of  their  subjects,  an  adoption  of  the 
Christian  religion  as  tlie  religion  of  their  states,  and  the  union 
of  their  several  hierarchies  in  one,  and  subjection  to  a  conmjon 
head  ;  as  those  were  the  peculiarities  that  distinguished  the  ru- 
lers of  the  ancient  empire  represented  by  the  seventh  head,  from 
those  denoted  by  the  sixth.     Into  the  imperial  hierarchy  whici 
it  thus  induced  the  Gothic  nations  to  erect,  it  infused  such  pow- 
er, such  zeal,  such  ambition,  and  such  a  unity  of  purpose,  iha 
it  acted  as  one  gigantic  individual,  moved  by  its  own  inheren 
energies,  and  swayed  by  a  single  spirit ;  claimed  an  absolut 
dominion  over  the   religion    of  those   within    its   territory,   an 
caused  that  as  many  as  would  not  sanction  its  imperious  assump 
tions,  and  submit  to  its  sway,  should  be  put  to  death. 

And  it  causes  all,  the  small  and  the  great,  and  the  rich  and  th 
poor,  and  the  free  and  the  enslaved,  to  impress  on  themselves 
conspicuous  mark  in  token  of  their  submission  to  its  claims,  a 
that  no  one  can  without  that  mark  enjoy  the  right  of  property, 
opportunity  to  gain  a  subsistence.     That  mark  is  the  name  oJ 
the  wild  beast  in  that  form  in  which  it  subsisted  under  the  heai 
that  received  the  death  wound  ;  or  the  number  of  that  name. 
Here  is  wisdom.     Let  him  who  has  understanding  compute  the 
number  of  that  beast,  for  it  is  a  number  of  a  man,  and  its  num- 
ber six  hundred  sixty-six.     As   the   Greeks  used   their  alpha- 
betic letters  as  representatives  of  numbers,  the  letters  of  every 
name  and  word  might  be  taken  as  signs  of  arithmetical  numbers, 
as  well  as  of  sounds.  To  compute  the  number  of  a  name,  is  there- 
fore to  ascertain  the  sum  total  of  the  numbers,  which  its  letters 
in  their  arithmetical  use  represent.     That  that  is  the  process 
enjoined,  is  shown  moreover  by  the  expression  of  the  sum  of  the 
name,  six  hundred  sixty-six  by  the  letters  x-  b-  S". — chi,  zi,  and 
stigma,  or  tf  and  t  united.    This  number  of  the  beast  is  the  num- 
ber of  a  man.     It  is  the  number  of  the  distinguishing  name  of  a 
family  of  men,  a  race  or  a  nation,  as  Persian  mstead  of  Babylo- 
nian, or  Greek  instead  of  Roman  ;  and  is  the  name  of  that  family 
or  race,  therefore,  from  which  the  nation  drew  its  origin  which 
the  wild  beast  under  its  seventh  head  ruled  ;  not  of  any  of  the  con- 


AND    THE  IMAGE.  401 

quering  nations  over  which  after  its  emergence  from  the  sea,  the 
dynasties  denoted  by  its  ten  horns  reigned.  It  is  the  name  of 
the  beast  after  whose  pattern  the  new  structure  is  formed.  That 
beast  is  the  wild  beast  which  had  the  death  wound  and  hved  ; 
and  that  was  that  wild  beast  under  its  seventh  head  ;  first,  be- 
cause it  is  an  image  not  of  the  ten-horned  wild  beast,  when 
swayed  by  the  horns,  but  to  it ;  that  is,  cotemporary,  of  an  ana- 
logous power,  and  a  rival :  and  next  because  no  other  than  the 
seventh  head  of  the  wild  beast  received  a  death  wound  and  lived. 
A  death  wound  by  a  sword,  must  have  been  an  interception  for 
a  space  by  that  instrument,  of  the  imperial  sway  which  that  head 
represented,  and  institution  of  an  essentially  different  supreme 
rule  in  its  place  ;  and  under  an  appearance  of  permanency  ;  but 
which  soon  gave  way  to  a  re-establishment  of  the  previous  head. 
But  no  such  interception  of  the  imperial  government  took  place 
anterior  to  the  elevation  of  Constantine,  and  no  different  form 
superseded  through  any  considerable  period,  that  which  he  insti- 
tuted, or  followed  it  after  its  final  close.  The  shape  into  which 
he  moulded  the  government,  was  its  last,  the  one  which  it  there- 
after bore  except  during  the  short  reign  of  Julian ;  and  its  seventh 
therefore. 

What  then  are  the  great  combinations  of  agents  denoted  by 
these  three  symbols  ; — the  two-horned  wild  beast ;  the  wild  beast 
whose  seventh  head  received  a  death  wound  ;  and  the  image  ? 
All  the  characteristics  of  the  two-horned  wild  beast  are  found 
conspicuously  in  the  hierarchy  of  the  Italian  Catholic  church 
within  the  papal  dominions,  and  in  no  other  succession  in  the 
Roman  empire  or  the  world. 

I.  That  hierarchy  had  its  origin  in  the  ancient  Latin  popula- 
tion, not  in  their  barbarian  conquerors,  Rome,  its  metropolis, 
was  in  Latium,  the  native  seat  of  the  people  that  founded  the 
Roman  empire,  and  was  the  capital  from  which  it  drew  its  denom- 
ination ;  and  it  had  subsisted  as  a  nationalized  hierarchy  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty-three  years,  at  the  final  conquest  of  Rome  by  the 
Heruli,  and  full  emergence  of  the  ten-horned  wild  beast  from 
the  sea.' 

II.  It  was  invested  by  the  kings  of  France  in  a  subsequent 
age,  with  a  civil  dominion  also  over  Latium  and  some  of  its 
other  ecclesiastical  territories,  and  thence  became  a  twofold 
monarchy,  answering  to  its  symbolization  by  two  horns  ;  and 
the  pope  its  head  reigned  over  its  political  kingdom  as  its  civil 

*  Ttie  edict  of  Constantine,  by  which  the  church  was  nationalized,  was  issued  in 
313 :  the  conquest  of  Rome,  and  emergence  of  the  wild  beast,  took  place  in  476. 

51 


402  THE    TWO-HORNED    WILD    BEAST 

and  military  chief,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  monarchs  denoted 
by  the  horns  of  the  first  wild  beast  reigned  over  theirs. 

The  attempt  of  the  emperor  Leo  the  Isaurian,  in  727,  to  enforce 
his  decree  against  the  worship  of  images  on  his  Itahan  subjects, 
excited  them  under  the  guidance  of  Pope  Gregory  II.  to  revok, 
and  transfer  their  allegiance  from  the  empire  to  the  apostolic 
seat.  "  Exasperated  against  the  emperor,  they  resolutely  re- 
jected his  tyrannical  sway,  and  pledged  themselves  by  a  solemn 
oath  to  defend  the  life  and  station  of  the  pontiff,  and  yield  obedi- 
ence in  all  things  to  his  authority.''^  The  Lombards  united  with 
Venice,  Ravenna,  and  the  cities  of  the  Exarchate  and  Pentapolis  in 
the  support  of  the  pope,  but  subsequently  proceeding  to  conquer 
the  territory  of  the  empire,  seize  the  estates  of  the  church,  and 
threaten  the  subjugation  of  Rome,^  pope  Stephen  III.  in  754 
solicited  protection  from  Pepin  of  France,  who  on  the  consent 
of  his  court  and  army  to  accede  to  the  wishes  of  the  pontiff, 
promised  if  God  enabled  him  to  conquer  the  Lombards,  to  give, 
in  order  to  the  remission  of  his  sins,  the  Exarchate  and  Penta- 
polis to  the  blessed  Peter  and  his  successors  as  a  perpetual  pos- 
session ;^  and  defeating  Aistulf,  forced  him  to  promise  the 
surrender  of  those  and  all  tlie  other  territories  which  he  had  con- 
quered from  the  Greeks,  to  the  pope.'*  On  his  declining  to  fulfil 
the  engagement,  Pepin  in  755  again  crossed  the  Alps,  and  re- 
ducing the  Lombards  to  submission,  put  the  bishop  of  Rome  in 
possession  of  those  cities,  and  constituted  him  thereby  a  civil 
prince,  though  in  dependence  on  the  French  crown.^  Desiderius, 
king  of  the  Lombards,  invading  the  territory  of  the  ciuirch,  and 
threatening  Rome  in  773,  at  the  pontiff's  solicitation,  Charlemagne 
advanced  into  Italy  for  his  relief,  conquered  the  Lombards,  and 
causing  himself  in  the  following  year  to  be  proclaimed  their 
king,  confirmed  the  donation  of  the  Exarchate  and  Pentapolis 
to  the  pope,  and  enlarged  his  domains  by  the  gift  of  several  other 
cities  and  provinces.''  And  those  territories,  with  the  exception 
of  several  short  periods,  have  continued  under  the  civil  dominion 
of  tlie  popes,  through  all  the  ages  that  have  followed. 

The  popes,  accordmgly,  represent  themselves  as  exercising  a 
twofold  monarchy.  Boniface  VIII.,  in  his  bull  Unam  Sanctam, 
said  :  "  We  are  taught  by  the  gospel  that  there  are  two  swords 
in  the  pontiff's  hands,  the  spiritual  and  the  temporal.  For  when 
the  apostle  said,  behold  here  are  two  swords,  that  is  in  the  church, 

'  Sigonii  de  Regno  Ital.  lib.  iii.  auno  727.  "  Ibid.  lib.  iii.  anuo  752. 

'  Ibid.  lib.  iii.  aiino  753,  754.  *  Ibid.  lib.  iii.  anno  754. 

'  Ibid.  lib.  iii.  anno  755.  •  Ibid.  lib.  iii.  anno  773. 


AND  THE  IMAGE.  403 

the  Lord  did  not  reply,  ihey  are  too  many,  but  enough.  As- 
suredly he  who  denies  that  the  temporal  sword  was  in  the  power 
of  Peter,  notices  very  inadequately  the  Lord's  answer, — put  thy 
sword  into  the  sheath.  Each  sword,  therefore,  the  spiritual  and 
the  material,  is  in  the  power  of  the  church."^ 

in.  Its  horns  were  hke  a  lamb's,  indicating  a  harmless  spirit ; 
but  it  spoke  with  a  dragon  voice. 

The  popes  have  professed  to  exert  their  civil  as  well  as  their 
ecclesiastical  rule,  as  ministers  of  religion  and  successors  of  the 
apostles  :  but  have  been  distinguished  beyond  any  other  dynasty 
of  monarchs,  for  imperiousness,  tyranny,  and  a  brutal  delight  in 
the  blood  of  their  subjects.  They  have  maintained  their  sway 
through  the  long  period  of  near  eleven  centuries,  not  by  the 
methods  of  a  just  and  wise  government,  not  by  studying  the  cul- 
tivation of  their  people,  securing  their  liberties,  fostering  their 
wealth,  or  promoting  their  happiness  ;  but  solely  by  the  engines 
of  a  remorseless  despotism,  the  gibbet,  the  stake,  the  sword,  and 
the  still  more  cruel  terrors  of  a  debasing  superstition.  They 
have  claimed  at  every  period  the  most  abject  submission  to  their 
will,  and  not  only  visited  slight  political  transgressions  with  a 
bloody  retribution,  but  exalted  a  dissent  from  their  opinions,  even 
on  questions  of  philosophy  and  science,  into  the  rank  of  capital 
offences,  and  avenged  them  with  a  severity,  which,  in  other 
empires,  is  assigned  only  to  the  most  flagitious  crimes.  No 
other  monarchy  in  Europe  has  been  so  jealous  of  its  preroga- 
tives ;  so  quick  and  unappeasable  in  resentment ;  nor  so  devoid 
of  pity  towards  its  victims.  No  other  has  made  its  subjects  in 
such  a  degree  the  mere  instruments  of  its  insatiable  appetites ; 
debarred  them  to  such  an  extent  from  the  culture,  prosperity, 
and  enjoyment,  of  which  they  were  capable  ;  crushed  them  with 
such  oppression  ;  or  consigned  them  in  such  vast  crowds,  not 
merely  for  crimes,  but  for  virtues,  to  chains,  to  torture,  and  to 
death.  Its  history  is  the  history  of  a  ferocious  brute,  spreading 
terror,  by  its  imperious  voice,  into  every  scene  into  which  it 
penetrates,  and  perpetually  preying  on  the  blood  of  the  unoflend- 
ing  and  helpless. 

IV.  It  exercised  the  same  power  as  the  first  wild  beast,  and 
cotemporaneously  with  it.  It  was  a  civil  and  military  power,  as 
were  the  monarchies  around  it.  Like  them  it  arrogated  abso- 
lute authority  over  the  property,  persons,  and  lives  of  its  sub- 
jects ;  issued  and  executed  decrees,  and  levied  taxes  ;  and  like 

'  Decret  Extravagan.  lib.  i.  tit.  viii.  c.  1. 


404  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

them  it  raised  armies,  made  war  on  its  neighbors,  fought  battles, 
and  conquered  territories. 

V.  It  prompted  the  earth,  the  native  population  of  the  empire, 
and  those  wlio  inhabit  it,  the  Gothic  conquerors,  to  worship  the 
first  wild  beast  whose  death  wound  was  healed.  The  first  wild 
beast  whose  deatii  wound  was  healed,  was  the  dragon  wild 
beast  when  under  the  sway  of  its  seventh  head,  the  symbol  of 
the  succession  of  Christian  emperors  from  Constantino  to  Au- 
gustulus.  The  worship  which  the  native  and  barbarian  popula- 
tion of  the  empire  were  induced  to  offer  to  those  emperors,  was 
involved  in  the  ascription  to  them  of  the  rights  of  God,  and 
treatment  of  their  arrogation  of  authority  over  his  laws  and  his 
people  in  their  relations  to  him  as  creator,  and  moral  governor,  as 
legitimate.  The  two-horned  wild  beast  induced  them,  in  the 
most  direct  and  formal  manner,  to  offer  that  homage,  by  per- 
suading them  that  the  forged  edict  ascribed  to  Constantino  was 
the  work  of  that  emperor,  and  that  he  had  the  absolute  authority 
over  the  laws  and  the  church  of  God,  which  that  document  ex- 
hibits him  as  assuming.  "  In  the  name  of  the  holy  and  indivisi- 
ble TrinUy,  the  emperor  Caesar  Flavins  Constantino  to  the  holy 
and  blessed  father  of  fathers,  Sylvester,  bishop  and  pope  of  the 
city  of  Rome,  and  all  his  successors,  who  shall  sit  in  the  chair 
of  the  blessed  Peter  to  the  end  of  the  w'orld,  and  to  all  prelates 
and  Catholic  bishops  throughout  the  world,  now  and  hereafter 
made  subject  by  this  edict  to  him,  grace  and  peace."  "  We, 
together  with  all  our  prefects,  the  senate,  all  men  of  rank,  and 
the  whole  population  of  the  empire,  have  judged  it  useful,  that, 
as  the  holy  Peter  is  seen  to  have  been  constituted  the  vicar  of 
the  Son  of  God  on  earth,  the  pontiffs  also,  who  are  successors 
of  that  prince  of  the  apostles,  should  obtain  by  concession  from 
us  and  our  empire,  the  power  of  a  princely  rule  more  ample 
than  our  imperial  serenity  possesses,  electing  that  prince  of  the 
apostles  and  his  successors  assured  intercessors  for  us  with  God; 
and  we  decree  that  the  holy  Roman  church  shall  be  reverently 
honored  like  our  imperial  power,  and  the  sacred  chair  of  the 
blessed  Peter  more  exalted  than  our  earthly  imperial  throne  ; 
ascribing  to  it  an  imperial  power,  dignity,  strength,  and  merit  of 
honor ;  and  ordaining  that  it  shall  have  dominion  as  well  over  the 
principal  seats,  Antioch,  Alexandria,  Jerusalem,  and  Constanti- 
nople, as  over  all  the  church  of  God  throughout  the  world ;  and 
he  who  is  for  the  time  pontiff  of  the  holy  Roman  church,  shall 
be  superior  and  prince  to  all  the  priests  of  the  world  ;  and  what- 
ever shall  be  ordained  in  order  to  the  honor  of  God  and  the  sta- 


AND  THE  IMAGE.  405 

bility  of  the  faith  of  Christians,  shall  be  disposed  by  his  judg- 
ment."^ 

In  this  edict  Constantino  is  exhibited  as  assuming  absolute  au- 
thority over  all  the  churches  of  God,  and  by  virtue  of  it  investing 
the  pope  of  Rome  with  supreme  dominion  over  them,  and  power 
to  ordain  laws  in  regard  to  their  faith  and  worship  ;  rendering  his 
canons  and  decrees  as  obligatory,  on  all  bishops  and  churches, 
as  the  imperial  edicts  were  on  the  subjects  of  the  civil  empire  ; 
and  granting  him  a  title  equal  to  that  of  the  emperors  to  awe, 
submission,  and  honor.  But  that  was  to  exhibit  him  as  arroga- 
ting an  absolute  dominion  over  the  rights  and  laws  of  God.  If 
he  could  in  that  manner  create  a  monarch  of  the  church  at  his 
pleasure,  endow  him  with  power  to  legislate  as  he  pleased  re- 
specting the  worship  of  God  and  the  faith  of  his  people,  and 
make  his  will  as  obhgatory  on  the  churches  as  the  imperial  laws 
were  on  the  civil  subjects,  so  that  its  violation  was  constituted 
a  crime  meriting  condign  punishment,  like  flagitious  offences 
against  the  imperial  authority  ;  then  his  power  obviously  was 
under  no  subordination  to  the  divine  rights,  but  was  absolute, 
and  as  adequate  to  set  aside  the  laws  of  God  as  to  impose  obli- 
gations on  men. 

The  popes  used  this  edict  to  induce  the  princes  and  people  to 
yield  them  the  territory  and  authority  which  it  exhibited  Con- 
stantine  as  having  conferred  on  them.  It  was  thus  employed  by 
Hadrian  I.  to  induce  Charlemagne  to  restore  to  the  church  the 
estates  and  territory  wrested  from  the  papacy  by  the  Lombards. 
"  We  implore  you,  illustrious  king,  for  the  love  of  God  and  his 
keybearer  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  who  condescended  to  be- 
stow on  you  the  throne  of  your  father's  kingdom,  that,  according 
to  the  promise  which  you  made  to  that  apostle  of  God  for  the 
benefit  of  your  soul  and  the  stability  of  yo\u-  kingdom,  you 
would  order  all  to  be  fulfilled  in  our  times  ;  that  the  church  of 
Almighty  God,  that  is  of  the  blessed  Peter  the  apostle,  to  whom 
the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  the  power  of  loosing  and 
binding  liability  for  the  commission  of  all  crimes  was  given,  may 
in  all  things  be  more  and  more  exalted,  and  that  all  things  may 
be  fulfilled  according  to  your  promise,  and  then  a  recompense 
will  be  assigned  to  you  in  the  celestial  court,  and  a  good  reputa- 
tion throughout  the  world.  And  as  in  the  times  of  the  blessed 
Roman  pontiff  Sylvester,  by  the  donation  of  the  most  pious  em- 
peror Constantino  the  Great,  of  holy  memory,  the  holy  Roman 
Catholic  and  Apostolic  church  of  God  was  advanced,  exalted, 
'  Labbei  Coiicil.  torn.  ii.  pp.  603-607. 


406  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  CEAST 

and  dignified,  by  a  gift  of  power  over  these  parts  of  the  west ;  so 
also  in  these  most  felicitous  times  of  ours,  the  holy  church  of 
God,  that  is  of  the  blessed  Peter  the  apostle,  may  flourish,  and 
rejoice,  and  become  still  more  exaUed,  so  that  all  nations  that 
hear  it  may  say.  Lord,  give  the  king  safety,  and  hear  us  when 
we  invoke  thee  ;  for  behold  the  modern,  most  Christian  emperor, 
Constantine,  has  risen  in  these  times,  through  whom  God  has 
deigned  to  bestow  all  things  on  his  holy  church  of  Peter  the 
prince  of  the  blessed  apostles.  But  all  others  also  which  have 
been  granted  to  the  blessed  apostle  Peter  and  the  holy  Roman 
Catholic  and  Apostolic  church  of  God  by  different  emperors, 
patricians  also,  and  others  who  feared  God,  for  the  benefit  of 
their  souls  and  forgiveness  of  their  sins,  in  Tuscany,  Spoleto, 
Benevento,  in  Corsica  also,  and  the  Sabine  patrimony,  and  which 
have  been  usurped  and  taken  away  by  the  nefarious  Lombards, 
should  be  restored  in  your  times.  We  have  from  those  places 
many  deeds  of  gift  deposited  in  our  archives  in  the  Lateran,  and, 
for  the  satisfaction  of  your  most  Christian  empire,  we  have  di- 
rected that  they  be  shown  to  you.  And  we  therefore  pray  your 
excellence  to  order  this  patrimony  to  be  wholly  restored  to  the 
blessed  Peter  and  us,  that,  while  the  holy  church  of  God  re- 
ceives all  through  your  appropriate  appointment,  the  prince  him- 
self of  the  apostles,  the  blessed  Peter,  may,  before  the  tribunal, 
invoke  the  clemency  of  the  Almighty  for  your  safely  and  long 
life,  and  the  exaltation  of  your  powerful  kingdom."^ 

The  edict  of  Constantine  was  doubtless  among  the  deeds  of 
gift  which  were  shown  to  ChaiJemagne  on  that  occasion.  It  was 
appealed  to  in  like  manner  by  Leo  IX.  in  his  attempt  to  convince 
Michael  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  of  the  supreme  authori- 
ty of  the  Roman  see.^  It  was  incorporated  by  Isidore  in  his  col- 
lection of  the  canons,  and  subsequently  by  Gralian,  and  made  a 
})art  of  the  ecclesiastical  law  ;  was  quoted  by  the  advocates  of 
the  church  in  the  council  summoned  by  Henry  of  Germany  in 
1062,^  and  an  acknowledgment  of  it  exacted  by  Gregory  VI 1. 
from  the  princes  of  Germany,  and  an  oath  on  their  induction  in- 
to office,  to  maintain  the  church  in  the  possessions  and  preroga- 
tives which  it  professed  to  confer.  "  We  show  by  the  annexed 
oath,  what  the  holy  Roman  church  exacts  from  him,  wlio  is  to  be 
chosen  king  in  the  place  of  Rudolph.  '  I  will,  from  this  hour,  be 
faithful,  with  a  true  allegiance,  to  the  blessed  Peter  the  apostle, 
and  his  vicar  pope  Gregory,  who  now  lives,  and  whatever  the 

'  Labboi  Concil.  torn.  xii.  pp.  820,  821. 

'  Ibid.  torn.  xix.  p.  G41.  '  Baronii  Annul,  anno  10G2,  No.  xxviii. 


AND  THE  IMAGE.  407 

pope  commands  me,  under  the  words — by  a  true  obedience — I 
will,  as  becomes  a  Christian,  faithfully  observe.  And  in  regard 
to  the  administration  of  the  churches  and  the  lands,  or  revenues 
which  tlie  emperor  Constantine  or  Charles  gave  to  the  holy  Pe- 
ter, and  in  respect  to  all  churches  and  estates  that  have  been  pre- 
sented or  conceded  to  the  apostohc  seat  by  any  man  or  woman  at 
any  time,  and  are  or  shall  be  at  my  disposal,  I  will  so  confer  with 
the  pope,  as  not  to  incur  the  danger  of  sacrilege  and  perdition  of 
my  soul."^ 

The  popes  accordingly,  in  treating  that  edict  as  authentic,  as 
conveying  to  them  the  power  which  it  professes  to  confer,  and  as 
obligatory  on  the  princes,  churches,  and  people  of  the  empire, 
treated  Constantine  as  truly  possessing  the  peculiar  rights  and 
prerogatives  of  the  Deity,  and  entitled  to  a  homage  that  is  due 
only  to  him.  And  in  persuading  princes  and  people  to  regard 
and  honor  the  emperor  as  possessing  that  supreme  authority,  they 
persuaded  them  to  impute  to  him  prerogatives,  and  pay  to  him  a 
homage,  that  belong  only  to  God. 

VI.  It  wrought  great  wonders,  so  as  to  deceive  the  Gothic  na- 
tions into  the  belief  that  it  enjoyed  in  its  doctrines  and  preten- 
sions the  sanction  of  God. 

The  popes  and  their  subordinates  have  professed  to  enjoy  mi- 
raculous powers  through  every  age,  from  the  period  of  the  con- 
version of  the  Gothic  kings  to  their  faith,  and  have  employed  the 
innumerable  wonders  which  they  represent  as  having  been 
wrought  in  connection  with  their  agency,  to  convince  the  rulers 
and  people  of  their  divine  mission.  Thus  miracles  are  asserted 
to  have  been  wrought  at  the  conversion,  baptism,  and  coronation 
of  Clovis,  to  confirm  him  and  his  people  in  the  Christian  faith, 
and  inspire  them  with  confidence  in  the  doctrines  of  St.  Vedas- 
tus  and  St.  Remigius.^  Miracles  are  related  to  have  been  wrought 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  p.  343. 

*  "  The  gospel  relates  tliat  the  Lord  Jesus  going  to  Jericho,  in  order  to  confirm  the 
people  who  were  present  in  their  belief  of  his  deity,  restored  sight  to  tlie  eyes  of  a 
blind  man  who  called  to  him,  so  that  by  the  gift  of  sight  to  the  body  of  one  who 
was  blind,  the  minds  of  many  were  spiritually  enlightened.  And  so  also  St.  Ve- 
dastus,  by  the  aid  of  Christ,  tlirough  the  illumination  of  a  blind  man,  miraculously 
confirmed  the  king  in  the  faith  which  he  had  preached :  for  his  excellency,  trav- 
elling with  a  suitable  attendance  and  a  great  multitude  of  people,  came  to  a  ham- 
let near  the  villa  Reguliaca,  on  the  flowery  banks  of  the  Aisne,  where,  as  he  passed 
the  head  of  the  stream,  a  blind  man  met  him,  who  had  long  been  deprived  of  sight, 
perhaps  not  by  his  own  fault,  but  that  the  works  of  God  might  be  manifested  in 
him,  and  by  his  restoration  to  sight,  the  hearts  of  many  be  spiritually  enlightened ; 
who  when  he  understood  from  those  who  were  passing  that  St.  Vedastus  the  ser- 
vant of  Christ  was  in  the  train,  cried,  O  holy  Vedastus,  and  chosen  of  God,  liava 
mercy  on  me,  and  earnestly  invoke  the  divine  power  to  relieve  my  misery.     I  ask 


408  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

at  the  conversion  of  Ethelbert  of  England.'  The  works  of  Greg- 
ory the  Great  abound  with  stories  of  prodigies  granted,  as  he  rep- 
resents, for  the  vindication  of  the  Cathohc  church,  the  support 
cf  the  papacy,  and  the  refutation  of  heretics.  The  ecclesiastical 
annals  of  Baronius  and  Raynald  ascribe  thousands  of  miracles  to 
the  popes,  prelates,  monks,  and  other  members  of  the  Romish 
hierarchy,  wrought  in  demonstration  of  the  legitimacy  of  their 
claims  to  divine  authority,  and  the  truth  of  their  doctrines  ;  and 
the  decrees  of  canonization  allege  the  possession  of  miraculous 
powers  as  a  mark  of  the  saintship  of  those  who  are  canonized, 
and  proof  of  their  title  to  that  honor,  Gregory  VII.  also,  the  prin- 
cipal instigator  of  the  erection  of  the  image,  made  pretensions  to 
miraculous  powers,  "  Anastasius  asserts  it  as  undoubted  in  his 
lime,  that  Gregory  was  famous  for  miracles,  not  only  during  his 
life,  but  after  his  death ;  for  as  the  Acts  relate  that  aprons  and 
handkerchiefs  from  Paul  were  used  by  believers  to  remove  ill- 
nesses and  expel  demons,  so  the  articles  worn  by  Gregory  were 
endowed  by  God  with  the  same  power,  as  you  may  see  from  the 
following  narrative  by  an  author  of  that  age,  in  the  life  of  St.  An- 
selm  :  '  Gregory  sent  his  mitre  to  Anselm  as  a  badge  of  the  pow- 
er of  binding  and  loosing,  and  as,  I  believe,  of  working  miracles 
also ;  for  we  all  know  not  long  after,  through  his  counsel  and 

not  gold  nor  silver,  but  that  sight  may  be  restored  to  me  through  your  holiness's 
prayers.  The  holy  man,  therefore,  conscious  that  divine  power  was  present  with 
him,  not  only  in  order  to  tlie  cure  of  tiie  blind  man,  but  still  more  for  the  salvation 
of  the  people  who  were  present,  poured  out  his  heart  in  holy  prayer,  confiding  in 
the  divine  grace,  and  placed  his  right  hand  with  the  sign  of  the  cross  over  the  blind 
man's  eyes,  saying.  Lord  Jesus,  who  art  the  true  light,  who  didst  open  the  eyes  of 
the  blind  man  who  cried  to  thee,  open  the  eyes  of  this  man  that  the  people  who  are 
present  may  discern  that  thou  art  God  alone,  who  dost  wondrous  things  in  heaven 
and  earth.  Immediately  the  blind  man  went  his  way,  rejoicing  in  the  recovery  of 
his  sight.  A  church  was  afterwards  built  on  the  place  by  pious  men  in  memory  of 
the  miracle,  and  divine  gifts  are  bestowed  to  this  day  on  those  who  pray  in  it  iu 
faith. 

"  Therefore,  the  king  having  been  well  instructed  by  the  man  of  God  in  the  evan- 
gelical discipline,  and  confirmed  in  the  faith  by  this  miracle,  made  no  delay,  but 
proceeded  with  the  utmost  alacrity  to  see  the  holy  pontiff  Remigius,  that  by  his  hal- 
lowed ministry  and  the  co-operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  ho  might  be  wa.shed  in  the 
living  fountain  of  Catholic  baptism  in  order  to  the  remission  of  sins,  and  the  hope 
of  eternal  life." — Baronii  Annal.  an.  499,  no.  23,  24,  25. 

Pope  Hormisdas  in  like  manner,  if  the  letter  to  Remigius  ascribed  to  him  be  gen- 
uine, represents  that  saint  as  having  converted  the  king  through  miracles  equal  in 
number  and  greatness  to  those  of  tlie  apostolic  age.  "  We  hereby  constitute  you 
our  vicar — saving  the  privileges  which  antiquity  ascrilies  to  metropolitans — through 
the  whole  kingdom  of  our  blessed  and  spiritual  son  Clovis,  whom,  through  the  aids 
of  divine  grace  and  numerous  miracles,  equalling  the  wonders  of  aj)ostolic  times, 
which  have  accompanied  your  preaching,  you  have  lately  converted  with  the  whol» 
nation,  and  consecrated  by  baptism." — Baronii  Annal.  an.  499,  no.  27. 

1  Gregorii  Mag,  Epist.28,lib.  xi.  Ind.  iv.  p.  1110. 


AND    THE    IiHaGE,  409 

great  faith,  God  wrought  illustrious  miracles  by  that  mitre  ;  for 
among  others,  the  reverend  bishop  of  Mantua,  Ubaldus,  who  had 
suffered  severely  many  years  with  the  spleen,  and  become  cov- 
ered with  ulcers  so  that  he  could  scarcely  stand,  sit,  walk,  or  re- 
cline, and  had  spent  much  on  physicians  without  any  benefit ; 
put  on  that  mitre  during  a  paroxysm  of  pain,  and  was  instantly 
restored  to  health.  The  great  and  happy  master  Gregory  thus 
wrought  many  miracles  both  living  and  dead  ;  the  good  disciple 
Anselm  did  also."^ 

VII.  It  prompted  the  Gothic  rnlers  to  make  an  image  to  the 
wild  beast  which  received  the  death-wound  and  lived,  by  the 
union  of  their  several  national  churches  into  a  single  hierarchy, 
and  subjection  of  them  to  the  pope  as  their  supreme  legislative 
and  judicial  head,  after  the  model  of  the  ancient  civil  empire  un- 
der Constantino  and  his  successors,  who  are  symbolized  by  the 
head  which  was  wounded  and  lived. 

For  near  two  centuries  from  the  conversion  of  the  Gothic  kings, 
and  the  commencement  of  their  co-operation  w^ith  the  popes  in 
enforcing  the  Catholic  religion  on  their  subjects,  those  prelates 
neither  exerted  nor  claimed  any  absolute  jurisdiction  over  the 
churches  out  of  their  own  patriarchate.  They  were  acknowl- 
edged as  successors  to  Peter,  and  the  first  bishops  of  the  church, 
respected  as  of  high  authority  in  doctrine  and  discipline,  and  con- 
sulted by  princes  and  prelates  on  questions  of  importance  ;  but 
their  decisions  were  advisory,  not  legislative  and  judicial,  and  be- 
came obligatory  on  the  church  only  by  adoption  and  ratification 
by  princes  and  councils.^ 

The  pastors  of  churches  until  the  eighth  or  ninth  century 
were  elected  either  by  their  congregations,  or  appointed  by  the 
bishops  of  the  diocese  in  which  they  were  installed.  The  bish- 
ops were  elected  by  their  clergy,  with  the  consent,  after  the  sev- 
enth and  eighth  centuries,  of  the  princes  to  whom  they  owed 
allegiance  ;  and  the  metropolitans  by  their  bishops.^  All  ques- 
tions between  the  bishops  were  settled  by  provincial  or  national 
synods,  or  if  appeals  were  made  to  Rome,  they  were  voluntary 
and  from  motives  of  expediency,  not  of  necessity."* 

Soon,  however,  after  the  erection  of  the  papacy  by  Pepin  and 
Charlemagne  into  a  civil  kingdom,  the  popes  began  openly  to 

'  Baronii  Annal.  an.  1085,  no.  xiii. 
°  Bossuetii  Defen.  Decl.  Preev.  Diss.  c.  61. 
'  Van  Espe.ii,  Jus.  Canon,  pr.  i.  tit.  xiii.  c.  i. 

*  Petri  de  Marca,  Concord.  Sacerd.  ct  Imp.  lib.  vii.  c.  13.  Febronii  de  Statu 
Ecci.  c.  iii.  s.  7. 

52 


410  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

aspire  to  an  ecclesiastical  dominion  over  the  churches  of  the 
other  kingdoms.  They  represented  their  decrees  as  of  universal 
authority,  they  interfered  in  appointments  to  benefices,  they 
claimed  the  right  of  determining  ecclesiastical  questions ;  and  to 
support  their  pretences,  procured  the  fabrication  of  a  vast  body 
of  letters  in  the  names  of  the  earlier  popes,  and  other  documents, 
which  exhibited  them  as  exerting  legislative  and  judicial  authority 
over  the  whole  church,  and  representing  princes,  prelates,  and 
churches  as  acknowledging  that  jurisdiction,  inserted  them  among 
the  canons,  and  constituted  them  a  part  of  the  ecclesiastical  law. 

Thus  those  forged  letters  exhibited  the  Roman  church  as  in- 
vested with  supreme  power  over  all  other  churches.  "  The 
other  patriarchal  churches  of  wiiich  we  send  you  a  catalogue, 
received  their  primates  from  the  holy  Apostle  and  the  blessed 
Clemens,  or  from  us ;  but  this  holy  Roman  and  aposlohc  church 
obtained  the  primacy,  not  from  the  apostles,  but  from  the  Lord 
himself  our  Saviour,  and  acquired  supreme  power  over  all 
churches,  and  the  whole  flock  of  Christian  nations." — "  Paul 
also  was  associated  with  Peter  in  the  city  of  Rome,  and  crowned 
at  the  same  time  with  a  glorious  death  under  Nero ;  and  they 
together  consecrated  the  holy  Roman  church,  and  exahed  it  by 
their  presence  and  triumph  over  all  other  cities  in  the  world." — 
"  By  the  divine  beneficence,  therefore,  the  first  seat  is  that  of  the 
holy  Roman  church,  which  Peter  and  Paul  consecrated  by  their 
martyrdom."* 

They  claimed  the  power  of  giving  authority  to  ecclesiastical 
laws.  "  We  give  validity  to  the  laws  of  the  Church  by  apostoli- 
cal authority — and  set  aside  foreign  or  secular  judgments."^ 

They  represented  the  violation  of  their  canons  as  a  crime  tliat 
consigned  the  perpetrator  to  destruction.  "  We  do  not  wish  to 
destroy  any  one,  but  he  destroys  himself  who  deliberately  violates 
the  decrees  of  the  apostles,  and  this  holy  seat.""^ 

They  claimed  the  right  of  determining  all  ecclesiastical  causes 
that  were  referred  to  them  by  appeal,  and  assigned  to  all  litigants 
the  right  of  appeal  to  tiieir  tribunal,  "  But  if  ditncult  causes 
arise  among  you,  refer  them  to  this  seat  as  the  head,  that  they 
may  be  terminated  by  an  apostolic  judgment ;  for  so  the  Lord 
wills,  and  so  he  ordained,  as  has  been  shown  ;  for  this  apostoli- 
cal seat  was  constituted  the  hinge  and  head  of  all  churches  by 
him,  and  not  any  one  else,  and  as  a  door  is  governed  by  the  hinge, 

*  Anacleti  Epist.  iii.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  i.  pp.  616,  617. 
'  Anacleti  Epist.  i.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  i.  p.  605. 

*  Sixti  Epist.  ii.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  i.  p.  654. 


AND    THE    IMAGE.  411 

SO  by  the  Lord's  appointment  all  churches  are  governed  by  the 
authority  of  this  holy  seat."^ 

They  represented  it  as  the  office  of  the  pontiffs  to  ratify  the 
decisions  of  metropolitans  and  other  bishops,  and  render  them 
authoritative.  "  In  regard  to  the  accusations  of  clergymen  re- 
specting which  you  ask  advice,  as  it  is  difficult  to  refer  all  such 
causes  to  the  apostolic  scat,  let  the  final  decisions  of  ihe  bishops 
only  be  referred  here,  that  they  may  be  finished  by  the  aulliority 
of  this  holy  seat,  as  has  been  decreed  by  the  apostles  and  their 
successors,  with  the  concurrence  of  many  bishops."-  "  It  is 
reported  to  this  apostolic  seat  thai  you  judge  the  cause  of  bishops, 
which  it  is  not  lawfid  for  you  to  decide  without  our  authority,  for 
it  has  been  a  rule  from  the  time  of  the  apostles,  that  a  bishop 
accused  or  judged  in  any  cause  by  the  bishops  of  his  province, 
might  freely  appeal  and  come  to  the  pontiff  of  this  seat,  who  of 
himself  or  through  his  vicars  may  re-examine  his  cause."'' 

These  forgeries  were  incorporated  by  Isidore  in  his  collection 
of  the  canons  ;  a  part  of  them  was  introduced  by  Agilramnus 
in  785  into  his,  and  by  Reginon,  into  his  in  the  tenth  century  •* 
and  were  the  grounds  on  which  the  pontiffs  founded  their  claims 
to  a  jurisdiction  over  the  whole  church,  and  the  most  efficient 
means  of  persuading  princes,  prelates,  and  people,  to  acquiesce 
in  them.  They  received  the  public  sanction  of  the  popes,  were 
quoted  by  them  in  vindication  of  their  usurpations,  and  enforced 
by  them  as  far  as  in  their  power  on  the  churches,  and  gained  in 
a  brief  period  a  general  reception  and  vast  influence. 

"  The  ancient  code  was  comprised  in  a  single  volume  of  mod- 
erate size,  and  consisted  of  the  canons  of  early  councils  and  de- 
cisions of  some  of  the  Roman  pontiffs.  That  book  the  church 
used  down  to  the  age  of  Charlemagne.  But  then  when  the 
monarchies  were  changed,  as  by  a  fatal  necessity,  the  ecclesi- 
astical law  also  was  changed,  and  to  the  ancient  one  which  had 
prevailed  through  more  than  seven  hundred  years,  succeeded  a 
new  code  made  up  of  forged  letters  of  Roman  pontiffs,  produced 
by  the  impudent  Isidore,  and  new  decrees  of  the  popes  who  filled 
the  apostolic  seat  after  the  age  of  Charlemagne.  That  code  had 
to  struggle  against  a  strong  opposition.  The  fortune  of  the  Ro- 
mans however  as  usual  prevailed,  so  that  after  those  times  nothing 

*  Anacleti  Epist.  iii.  c.  iv.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  i.  p.  618 ;  also  Sixti  Epist.  ii.  torn, 
i.  pp.  653,  654. 

■■'  Eleutherii  Epist.  i.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  i.  p.  695. 
'  Victoris  i.  Epist.  i.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  i.  p.  70  L 

*  Van  Espen,  de  Collect.  Can.  pr.  iv.  v.  pp.  100-110. 


412  THE    TWO-HORNED    WILD    BEAST 

rung  more  frequently  in  the  ears  of  Christians,  than  the  authority 
and  allegation  of  these  new  epistles  ;  especially  when  attempts 
were  made  against  ancient  customs  and  usages,  that  had  long  pre- 
vailed in  the  provinces. 

"  The  age  of  Charlemagne,  in  which  the  new  code  was  intro- 
duced, was  favorable,  on  account  of  the  extreme  confusion  which 
the  wretched  and  astonishing  ignorance  of  the  bishops  and  their 
clergy,  and  inacquaintance  with  the  ancient  canons,  occasioned 
in  the  government  of  the  church.  Produced  in  France  at  that 
period  of  perturbation  by  Riculf,  archbishop  of  Menlz,  those 
letters  ascribed  to  the  early  Roman  bishops  struck  the  minds  of 
all,  because  of  the  names  of  the  holy  pontiffs  which  they  bore, 
and  the  new  views  they  exhibited  of  antiquity.  Thence  a  feeling 
rose  that  it  was  not  lawful  to  doubt  their  authority  ;  and  from 
that  time  the  venerated  canons  of  the  early  councils  and  the 
authentic  decrees  of  the  early  pontiffs  of  the  apostolic  seat,  which 
had  been  of  the  highest  authority  through  so  many  years,  grad- 
ually sunk  into  contempt,  while  the  new  were  held  in  high  honor."^ 

The  principal  doctrines  of  this  new  code  were  soon  embodied 
by  the  pontiffs  in  new  decrees,  and  enforced  on  the  ecclesiastics 
beyond  the  Alps.  Thus  Nicolas  I.,  who  held  the  papal  throne 
from  858  to  867  :  "  The  Roman  church  instituted  all  others, 
whether  of  patriarchal  or  metropolitan  rank,  the  seats  of  bishops, 
or  other  grades  of  dignity." — "  By  the  princely  hand  of  the  blessed 
Peter  and  Paul  we  have  power  and  right  not  only  over  monks, 
but  over  all  the  clergy  of  whatever  rank  of  every  diocese." — "  It 
is  clear  that  the  sentence  of  the  apostolic  seat  is  not  to  be  super- 
seded by  any  one  ;  nor  is  it  lawful  for  any  one  to  judge  its  deci- 
sions."^ 

A  formal  acknowledgment  of  the  supremacy  of  the  pope  by  a 
profession  of  faith,  and  solicitation  and  reception  from  him  of  the 
pall,  was  made  a  condition  of  admission  to  the  higher  offices  of 
the  church.  Thus  it  was  decreed  by  the  synod  of  Ravenna  un- 
der John  VIII.  in  877,  "  that  any  metropolitan  who  did  not 
within  three  months  of  his  consecration  send  a  profession  of  his 
faith,  and  receive  the  pall  from  the  apostohc  seat,  unless  una 
voidably  prevented,  should  lose  his  office,  and  be  divested  of 
authority  to  consecrate,  as  long  as  he  disregarded  the  ancient 
usage  of  making  a  profession  of  faith  and  soliciting  the  pall."^ 

The  popes  were  accustomed  to  refuse  the  pall  to  those  whose 

'  S.  Baluzii  PraBf.  ad  Dial.  Ant.  Augustini  de  Emend.  Gratiani,  pp.  7,  8- 
"  Nicolai  i.  decret.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xv.  p.  436. 
'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xvii.  p.  337. 


AND  THE  IMAGE.  413 

faith  was  not  satisfactory  to  them,  or  who  declined  to  acknowl- 
edge the  authority  of  the  pontifical  decrees.  Thus  the  same 
pontiff:  "We  cannot  now  bestow  on  you  the  pall  which  you 
desire,  because  we  find  the  statement  of  your  faith  is  less  full 
than  it  ought  to  be,  for  you  make  no  mention  in  it,  as  is  custom- 
ary, either  of  the  ancient  general  councils,  which  contain  the 
symbol  of  our  faith,  nor  of  the  decretal  constitutions  of  the  Ro- 
man pontiffs  ;  nor  have  you  confirmed  it  by  your  signature,  nor 
sent  any  one  who  can  verify  it  by  oath."^  And  they  denounced 
an  anathema  on  all  who  disregarded  their  decrees.  Thus  Nico- 
las I.  :  "  If  any  one  shall  contemn  the  dogmas,  mandates,  inter- 
dicts, canons,  or  decrees,  promulged  by  the  pontiffs  of  the  apos- 
tolic seat  in  favor  of  the  Catholic  faith,  or  discipline  of  the  church, 
in  order  to  the  correction  of  present  or  future  evils,  let  him  be 
accursed."^ 

By  these  extraordinary  means  the  pontiffs  soon  made  great 
accessions  to  their  power.  They  were  far,  however,  from  being 
wholly  successful,  especially  with  some  of  the  prelates  of  France, 
who  detected  their  forgeries,  disowned  their  authority,  and  con- 
tinued to  maintain  in  a  large  degree  their  independence  :  and 
they  met  still  greater  obstruction  from  several  of  the  monarchs. 
As  they  held  their  temporal  dominions  as  a  dependence,  first,  of 
the  kings  of  France,  and  subsequently  of  the  emperors  of  Ger- 
many, and  the  assent  of  those  princes  at  each  election  was  requi- 
site in  order  to  the  investiture  of  the  pope,  tiie  appointment  of 
the  pontiffs  was  in  effect  transferred  from  the  church  itself  to 
them,  and  thence  made  a  check  to  their  ambition,  and  a  means 
of  their  vassalage.  The  office  was  bestowed  on  favorites  of  the 
court,  and  made  the  reward  of  past,  or  condition  of  future  sub- 
serviency. But  those  princes  were  not  long  content  with  the 
disposal  of  the  first  office  of  the  church.  They  began  also  to 
usurp  the  appointment  of  all  subordinate  bishops,  and  other  ec- 
clesiastics of  rank,  to  set  vacant  offices  to  sale,  and  make  the 
reception  from  them  of  the  badge  of  investiture,  a  requisite  in 
order  to  consecration.^     Their  example  Avas  followed  by  the 

'  Joannis  viii.  Epist.  Frag.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xvii.  p.  242. 

"  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xv.  p.  437. 

'  "  To  these  evils  Henry  the  emperor  added  another,  which  confirmed  such  as 
had  prevailed  before,  and  gave  birth  to  those  which  rose  afterwards;  for  he  appoint- 
ed bisliops,  not  for  their  merits,  according  to  the  requirement  of  tlie  canons,  but  for 
the  payment  of  the  largest  sum  of  money,  or  th.e  most  forward  adulation  of  his 
crimes ;  and  after  having  given  the  episcopal  office  to  a  pereon,  if  another  offered 
a  higher  price  or  louder  flattery,  he  caused  the  former  to  be  deposed  for  simony,  and 
the  other  to  be  consecrated  as  a  saint  in  his  place." — N.  Alexand.  Hist.  Eccl.  sec 
xii.  torn.  vi.  p.  676.     See  also  Van  Espen,  Jus.  Canon,  pr.  i.  p.  69. 


414  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

monarchs  of  the  other  kingdoms,  and  the  hierarchy  of  each  re- 
duced in  that  relation  to  an  abject  subjection  to  them.  To  extri- 
cate the  papacy  and  other  hierarchies  from  this  thraldom,  and 
gratify  his  boundless  ambition  and  avarice,  Gregory  VII.  formed, 
and  in  a  large  degree  accomplished,  the  stupendous  design  of 
grasping  with  his  own  hands  the  vast  power  thus  usurped  by  the 
princes,  exalting  the  pontiff,  not  only  to  an  independence  of  the 
emperors,  but  dominion  over  all  civil  rulers,  and  reducing  the 
hierarchies  to  that  subordination  to  the  papacy  for  which  the  way 
had  been  prepared  by  the  fabrications  of  Isidore. 

The  first  step  in  this  process  was  the  investiture  of  the  cardi- 
nals witli  the  right  of  electing  the  pope,  and  the  authorization  of 
the  pope  to  enter  on  his  office,  without  waiting  for  the  sanction 
of  the  emperor.  It  was  decreed  by  a  council  assembled  at  Rome 
under  Nicolas  II.  in  1059,  "  That  the  election  of  the  Roman  pon- 
tiff should  be  vested  in  the  cardinal  bishops,  so  that  if  any  one 
were  enthroned  in  the  apostolical  seat,  without  having  first  been 
harmoniously  and  canonically  elected  by  them,  and  then  ap- 
proved by  the  subordinate  religious  orders,  the  clergy,  and  laics, 
he  should  not  be  regarded  as  pope  or  apostolical,  but  an  apos- 
tate."* And  Nicolas  confirmed  that  canon.  "  We  decree  by  the 
apostolic  authority,  that  should  any  one  be  enthroned  in  the  apos- 
tolic seat  for  money,  through  fear,  or  by  a  popular  or  military 
tumult,  without  a  harmonious  and  canonical  election  and  bene- 
diction by  the  cardinal  bishops,  and  then  the  concurrence  of  the 
subordinate  religious  orders,  he  shall  not  be  held  to  be  pope,  or 
apostohcal,  but  an  apostate,  and  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  cardi- 
nals, wiili  the  religious  who  fear  God,  the  clergy  and  laity,  to 
expel  the  intruder  from  the  apostolic  seat,  even  with  an  anathe- 
ma, and  by  force,  and  with  zeal,  and  to  appoint  wliom  they  shall 
judge  worthy  ;  and  if  they  are  unable  to  do  it  within  the  city, 
assembhiig  by  our  apostolic  authority  without  the  city  in  what- 
ever place  they  please,  they  may  choose  whoever  they  deem 

"  Wido,  by  divine  grace  archbisliop  of  the  church  of  Milan,  to  all  the  faithful  in 
Christ,  clergy  and  people  of  that  church,  eternal  salvation.  Your  devotion,  beloved 
brethren  and  cuildren,  is  not  ignorant  how  the  reprobate  and  detestable  practice  of 
simony,  condemned  by  all  the  canons,  formerly  prevailed  in  this  churcli,  and  con- 
taminated t,.e  souls  of  the  innocent  with  its  pestiferous  leprosy  ;  so  thai  whoever 
entered  the  clerical  order,  by  a  settled  rule,  paid  for  a  subdeaconsliip  ten  pieces,  for 
a  deaconslup  eig.iteen,  and  for  the  office  of  a  presbyter  twenty-four  ;  so  tuat  in  this 
way  Simon  Magus  converted  this  holy  Ambrosian  church,  as  it  were,  into  a  shop 
of  his  jjerversity.  That  coiner  and  money-changer  of  iniquity  had  a  bellows,  ham- 
mers, and  an  anvil,  and  fabricated  nothing  else  tiian  the  common  peril  of  souls." — 
Labbei  Concil.  toni.  x  x.  p.  891. 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xix.  p.  897. 


AND  THE   IMAGE.  415 

the  worthiest,  and  most  advantageous  for  the  apostohc  seat,  and 
give  him  authority  to  rule  and  direct  affairs  for  the  benefit  of  the 
holy  Roman  church,  as  seems  best  to  him  according  to  circum- 
stances, as  though  he  were  already  enthroned."  "  As  the  apos- 
tolic scat  presides  over  all  the  churches  of  the  world,  and  there- 
fore cannot  have  a  metropolitan  over  it,  the  cardinal  bishops  are 
without  doubt  to  discharge  the  office  of  metropolitans,  and  induct 
the  elect  bishop  into  the  apostolic  seat.  Let  him,  however,  be 
chosen  from  the  bosom  of  this  church,  if  a  suitable  one  l:>e  found. 
If  no  one  be  found  in  it,  let  him  be  taken  from  another,  observing 
the  honor,  however,  and  reverence  that  are  due  to  our  beloved 
son  Henry,  who  is  now  held  to  be  king  of  the  Romans,  and  is 
expected  by  divine  permission  hereafter  to  be  emperor,  as  we 
have  already  conceded  to  him  and  to  his  successors,  who  may 
personally  exact  that  right  of  the  apostohc  seat.  Should  unjust 
and  evil  men  prevail  to  such  a  degree,  that  a  pure,  true,  and  free 
election  cannot  be  made  in  the  city,  the  cardinal  bishops,  with  the 
religious,  clergy,  and  Catholic  laics,  although  few,  shall  have 
legitimate  power  to  choose  a  pontiff  wherever  they  may  think 
proper  to  assemble  ;  and  after  an  election  shall  have  been  made, 
if  a  storm  of  war,  or  the  malicious  endeavors  of  men  shall  ob- 
struct him  who  has  been  elected,  so  that  he  cannot  be  enthroned 
according  to  custom  in  the  apostolic  seat,  the  elect  shall,  never- 
theless, have  authority  as  the  true  pope,  to  govern  the  Roman 
church,  and  administer  all  its  affairs. 

"  Should  any  one  chosen  against  this  decree,  either  through 
sedition,  presumption,  or  any  device,  be  ordained  or  enthroned, 
let  him  with  liis  favorers  and  followers  be  separated  by  the  au- 
thority of  God  and  the  holy  apostles  Peter  and  Paul  from  the 
threshold  of  God's  holy  church,  and  rejected  as  antichrist,  an 
intruder,  and  a  destroyer  of  Christianity  ;  nor  any  hearing  be 
reserved  to  him  in  respect  to  it,  but  let  him  be  deprived,  without 
a  recall,  of  every  ecclesiastical  rank  he  before  enjoyed,  and  let 
whoever  adheres  to  him,  or  pays  him  any  reverence  whatever  as 
a  pontiff,  or  ventures  in  any  respect  to  defend  him,  be  bound  by 
a  like  sentence."^ 

By  this  provision,  on  the  one  hand,  no  one  could  be  inducted 
into  the  papal  chair  by  the  mere  will  of  the  emperor  or  a  fac- 
tion ;  and  on  the  other,  whoever  was  elected  by  the  cardinals  and 
subordinate  clergy,  was  authorized  to  assume  the  office,  not  only 
though  exiled  from  the  city,  and  prevented  from  being  enthroned, 

»  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xix.  pp.  899, 903,  904. 


416  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

but  without  the  sanction  of  the  emperor,  unless  he  should  per- 
sonally demand  that  formality. 

Next,  as  successor  to  St.  Peter,  the  pontiff  arrogated  an  ab- 
solute authority  over  all  other  bishops,  and  asserted  that  they 
drew  their  oifice  from  him,  and  were  under  obligation  to  render 
implicit  obedience  to  his  will. 

Thus  Gregory  VII.  through  the  first  synod  of  Rome,  in  1074  : 
"  Perhaps  some  one  may  be  so  delirious  as  to  say  that  the  sub- 
jects of  a  bishop  can  be  condemned  by  him  only,  not  by  the 
Roman  pontiff.  But  that  is  contradicted  by  the  gospel,  in  which 
the  prerogative  is  conferred  on  the  blessed  Peter  as  a  prince 
among  the  apostles,  in  the  promise  whatsoever  you  bind  on  earth, 
shall  be  bound  in  heaven  ;  for  he  who  subjects  all  generally  to 
the  apostolic  power,  in  no  way  excepts  the  subject  of  any  bishop. 
Whence  the  same  apostle  exacted  obedience  generally  from  the 
elders  of  his  time,  that  is  the  presbyters  or  bishops,  and  from 
their  subjects,  inasmuch  as  in  his  epistles  he  addressed  rules  of 
life  alike  to  inferiors  and  superiors,  and  to  women  as  well  as 
men,  which  had  been  idle  had  not  all  owed  obedience  to  his  in- 
junctions. The  blessed  Anicletus,  also  ordained  a  presbyter  by 
the  prince  of  the  apostles  himself,  testifies  in  his  decrees,^  '  The 
holy  and  apostolic  Roman  church  obtained  the  primacy,  not 
from  the  apostles,  but  from  the  Lord  himself,  inasmuch  as  he 
said  to  the  blessed  Peter,  thou  art  Peter.  Therefore  this  apos- 
tolical seat  is  constituted  the  hinge  and  head  of  all  the  churches 
by  the  Lord,  and  not  by  any  one  else  ;  and  as  a  door  is  regula- 
ted by  the  hinge,  so,  by  the  Lord's  appointment,  all  churches 
are  governed  by  the  authority  of  this  holy  seat.'  The  apostolic 
doctor,  Gelasius,  likewise  •}  '  The  whole  church,  throughout 
the  world,  knows  that  the  holy  Roman  church  has  the  right  of 
judging  every  other  church,  and  that  no  one  has  authority  to 
judge  the  Roman  church,  inasmuch  as  appeals  are  to  be  made 
to  it  from  every  part  of  the  world,  and  no  liberty  is  allowed  of 
appeal  from  it.  Moreover,  the  apostolical  seat  has  the  power, 
without  the  concurrence  of  a  synod,  of  releasing  whoever  an 
unjust  synod  has  condemned,  and  of  condemning,  without  a 
synod,  whoever  it  thinks  proper ;  and  this,  doubtless,  by  the 
sovereignty  which  Peter  held  by  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  al- 
ways will  hold.  With  these  also  concur  the  holy  fathers,  Callis- 
tus,  Fabian,  Sixtus,  Sylvester,  Julius,^  and  many  others,  who 
were  so  attached  to  the  truth  that  they  would  have  preferred  to 

'  They  are  forgeries.  '  A  forgery. 

'  The  decrees  here  referred  to  are  all  forgeries. 


AND  THE   IMAGE.  417 

die  rallier  than  utter  a  falsehood.  By  virtue  of  this  prerogative, 
accordingly,  pope  Simplicius  entirely  released  Gregory,  bishop 
of  Modena,  suffragan  of  the  archbishop  of  Ravenna,  from  the 
dominion  of  that  prelate,  and  because  the  archbishop  had  en- 
throned him  against  his  will  in  the  church  of  Modena.  In  like 
manner  St.  Gregory  reduced  Honoratus,  archdeacon  of  Solona, 
who  had  then  advanced  from  the  archdeaconship  to  the  rank  of 
presbyter,  to  his  former  grade,  against  the  will  of  the  bishop, 
and  deprived  him  also  whom  the  bishop  of  Solona  had  ordained 
in  his  place.  They,  therefore,  manifestly  err,  render  themselves 
obnoxious  to  the  authority  of  the  apostle,  and  rashly  judge 
against  his  power,  when  they  imagine  that  the  subjects  of  any 
bishop  cannot  be  bound  or  loosed  by  the  lioman  pontiff,  but  only 
by  their  own  priest. 

"  Moreover,  the  popes  Leo,  Vigil,  and  Gregory,  each  emi- 
nent in  authorit}'-,  testify  in  their  decrees  almost  in  the  same  lan- 
guage, that  the  holy  Roman  church  bestows  their  office  on  other 
churches,  so  that  they  are  called  to  a  part  in  the  care,  but  not  to 
a  plenitude  of  power  ;  which  shows  clearly  that  no  bishop  has  as 
great  power  given  him  over  his  own  flock  as  the  apostolical  pon- 
tiff, who,  although  he  distributes  his  care  to  the  individual  bishops, 
yet  by  no  means  divests  himself  of  his  universal  and  sovereign 
power  ;  just  as  a  king  does  not  diminish  his  regal  power  by  di- 
viding his  kingdom  among  different  dukes,  counts,  or  judges. 
As  then  the  apostolical  lord  has  such  a  sovereign  pow^er  over 
every  church,  that  even  against  the  will  of  the  bishop  he  may 
direct  any  thing  in  it  according  to  the  canons,  who  can  deny  that 
he  can  condemn  everywhere  throughout  the  nations,  both  the 
subjects  of  bishops  and  bishops  themselves,  who  contemn  the 
apostoUcal  command  ? 

"  It  is  shown  by  these  considerations,  also,  that  the  parishioner 
of  a  bishop  ought  to  obey  his  apostolical  lord  rather  than  his 
own  bishop,  since  the  authority  of  his  own  is  by  no  means  ade- 
quate to  release  him  from  an  apostolical  condemnation  if  he  is 
disobedient  to  the  apostolical  commands  ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  apostolical  lord,  if  he  obey  him,  can,  with  the  utmost 
case,  protect  him  from  all  injury  by  his  bishop,  either  by  wholly 
releasing  the  parishioner  from  his  dominion,  or  by  restraining  the 
bishop  from  injustice  through  a  rebuke  or  condemnation  by 
apostolical  authority.  The  subject  of  a  bishop  should,  indeed, 
take  care  not  to  obey  his  own  bishop  in  any  respect  contrary  to 
the  apostolical  commands,  since  St.  Gregory  deprived  the  arch 
deacon  of  Solona,  appointed  in  the  place  of  Honoratus,  because  he 

53 


418  THE  TWO-nORNED  WIU)  BEAST 

obeyed  his  own  bishop  in  being  ordained  in  his  place  after  a  pro- 
hibition by  the  apostolic  seat.  Hence,  also,  it  is  seen  how  mani- 
festly they  err  who  say  that  the  subjects  of  a  bishop  ought  not 
by  any  means  to  obey  the  apostolic  seat  if  they  would  obey 
their  own  priest ;  since  he  was  degraded,  and  deservedly,  by  St. 
Gregory,  who  was  shown,  by  obedience  to  iiis  own  bishop,  to 
have  been  opposed  to  the  apostolic  seat.  Indeed,  no  one  can 
show  a  due  obedience  to  his  own  bishop  who  does  not  endeavor 
primarily  to  obey  the  apostolic  seat.  For,  every  one  who  de- 
sires to  be  a  bishop,  should  especially  teach  his  people  that 
they  should,  without  contradiction,  obey  the  canons  of  the  holy 
fathers,  which,  as  has  already  been  said,  enjoin  on  all  a  supreme 
obedience  to  the  apostolic  seat.  Whoever  then  would  render  an 
appropriate  obedience  to  his  own  legitimate  pastor,  must  also 
study  to  render  a  supreme  obedience  to  the  apostolic  lord."^ 

Gregory  VII.,  in  like  manner,  in  his  dictates,  asserts  that  the 
Roman  pontiff  might  of  right  be  called  universal,  that  he  could, 
without  the  concurrence  of  a  synod,  depose  bishops  and  recon- 
cile them,  and  that  he  had  authority  to  institute  new  laws  ac- 
cording to  the  exigency  of  the  times. ^ 

He  thus  claimed  the  most  absolute  supremacy  over  the  church., 
as  monarch,  lawgiver,  and  judge.  He  taught  that  all  other 
bishops  and  clergy  drew  their  authority  from  him,  held  their  of- 
fice by  his  will,  and  might  be  deprived,  suspended,  or  deposed 
at  his  pleasure.  He  held  that  they  had  no  authority  over  their 
people  except  in  subordination  to  him,  that  their  parishioners 
owed  them  no  obedience  except  in  subjection  to  him,  and  that 
they  were  under  the  highest  obligation  to  disobey  them,  when 
their  commands  were  at  variance  with  his  dictates  ;  and  finally, 
he  denied  that  he  was  under  any  responsibility  to  the  church  for 
the  manner  in  which  he  exercised  his  power. 

Thirdl3^  He  asserted  the  right  of  the  church  to  elect  and  in- 
stitute its  pastors  and  bishops,  independently  of  the  civil  rulers  ; 
and  accused  the  emperors  and  other  monarchs  of  violating  its 
liberties,  in  usurping  the  appointment  and  introduclion  of  bishops 
and  other  ecclesiastics  into  their  offices. 

He  accordingly  induced  a  Roman  synod  to  decree,  *'  that  as 
often  as  the  pastor  of  a  church  died,  and  another  was  to  be  insti- 
tuted in  his  place,  at  the  direction  of  the  visiting  bishop  sent  to 
it  from  the  apostolical  or  metropolitan  seat,  the  clergy  and  peo- 
ple, setting  all  worldly  ambition,  fear,  and  favor  aside,  should 
with  the  consent  of  the  pope  or  the  metropolitan  of  the  church, 

*  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  pp.  429-436.  "  Ibid.  IG^^,  1G9. 


AND  THE   IMAGE.  419 

elect  a  pastor  for  itself  according  to  God  ;  and  that  if  it  should 
presume  to  do  otherwise,  it  should  derive  no  benefit  from  the 
election  wrongly  made,  nor  have  authority  to  make  another,  but 
the  whole  power  of  election  should  be  at  the  disposal  of  the 
apostolic  seat,  or  the  metropolitan."'^ 

He  prohibited  the  reception  of  investiture  from  princes  and 
laymen.  "  If  any  one  hereafter  receive  the  episcopate  or  abbot- 
ship  from  the  hand  of  any  laic,  he  shall  not  be  held  to  be  a  bish- 
op or  abbot.  We,  moreover,  debar  him  from  the  favor  of  the 
blessed  Peter,  and  from  entering  the  church  to  serve  in  the 
place  which  he  obtained  by  ambition  and  disobedience,  which  is 
idolatry.  We  ordain  the  same  also  in  regard  to  inferior  ecclesi- 
astical offices.  Also  if  any  emperor,  duke,  marquis,  count,  or 
any  other  secular  officer  or  person,  ventures  to  give  an  investi- 
ture of  the  episcopate  or  any  other  ecclesiastical  dignity,  let  him 
know  that  he  is  bound  by  the  bond  of  the  same  sentence."- 

He  prohibited  likewise  the  purchase  and  sale  of  ecclesiastical 
offices.  "  If  any  one  shall  sell  prebends,  archdeaconships,  or 
any  ecclesiastical  offices,  or  ordain  in  any  other  manner  than  the 
statutes  of  the  holy  fathers  direct,  let  him  be  suspended  from 
his  office." 

"  Ordinations  which  are  made  for  money,  because  of  solicita- 
tion, or  through  subservience  to  any  one,  or  which  are  not  made 
with  the  concurrence  of  the  clergy  and  people  according  to  the 
canons,  and  the  approbation  of  those  to  whom  the  consecration 
belongs,  we  adjudge  to  be  invalid  and  without  authority."^ 

Fourthly.  He  enforced  these  decrees,  and  all  other  canons 
on  ecclesiastics  and  laics  of  every  rank  throughout  the  empire, 
by  the  penalties  of  deposition  and  excommunication. 

"  Sigefrid,  archbishop  of  Mcntz,  who  attempted  to  separate 
archbishops  and  abbots  of  Germany  from  their  spiritual  mother 
the  holy  Romaa  church,  we,  by  the  judgment  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  the  authority  of  the  apostles  Peter  and  Paul,  suspend  from 
the  episcopal  office,  and  debar  from  the  communion  of  the  body 
and  blood  of  the  Lord,  unless  the  peril  of  death  intervenes  and 
he  repent.  Others  also,  who  have  voluntarily  united  in  his 
schism,  and  persist  in  that  wickedness,  we  suspend  in  like  man- 
ner from  the  episcopal  office. 

"  The  bishops  of  Lombardy,  who,  contemning  the  canonical 
and  apostolical  authority,  have  conspired  against  the  blessed 
Peter  the  prince  of  the  Apostles,  we,  by  the  authority  of  Peter, 

*  Rom.  Concil.  vii.  can.  vi.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  p.  533. 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  pp.  431,  509,  517.  '  Ibid.  509. 


420  THE  TWO-HORNED   WILD  BEAST 

suspend  wholly  from  the  episcopal  office,  and  separate  from  the 
communion  of  the  holy  church.  We  excommunicate  Beren- 
ger,  bishop  of  Agdc,  because  he  communicated  with  the  bishop 
of  Narbonne  when  under  excommunication,  and  performed  epis- 
copal offices  for  him.  We  excommunicate  Heriman,  bishop  of 
Vienne,  justly  deposed  for  simony,  perjury,  sacrilege,  and  apos- 
tasy, because  he  persists  in  harassing  the  church  of  Vienne,  and 
we  prohibit  divine  service  in  the  churches  of  Romans  and  St. 
Irenaeus  of  Lyons  as  long  as  he  has  possession  of  them."' 

Fifthly.  He  summoned  ecclesiastics,  princes,  and  persons  of 
all  ranks,  from  every  part  of  the  empire  to  Rome,  to  answer  to 
him  for  their  violations  of  his  decrees,  and  submit  their  contests 
with  one  another  to  his  decision  ;  assumed  the  right  of  judging 
their  causes  ;  and  punished  them,  if  they  refused  submission  to 
his  dictates,  with  excommunication  and  anathemas. 

"  Philip,  king  of  France,  being  strongly  attached  to  you,  has 
urgently  requested  us  both  by  letters  and  ambassadors  to  ab- 
solve you,  which  we  saw  we  could  not  consistently  do,  as  we 
know,  according  to  the  canons,  you  ought  to  be  far  more  se- 
verely censured.  However,  postponing  in  apostolical  compas- 
sion the  avenging  sentence  which  is  your  due,  we  hereby  com- 
mand you  by  all  means  to  present  yourself  before  us  at  the 
approaching  festival  of  All  Saints,  that  we  may  determine  justly 
the  complaints  so  often  repeated  against  you  of  the  church  oi 
Chalons,  and  admonish  )''ou  in  the  mean  time  not  to  render  your- 
self by  contempt  or  disobedience  still  more  obnoxious  to  the 
sentence  already  pronounced.  If  you  disobey  us  in  respect  to 
these  commands,  and  artfully  excusing  yourself,  fail  to  appear 
before  us  within  the  appointed  time,  you  need  not  doubt  any 
further  that  you  w'ill  be  condemned,  and  irrevocably  deposed."^ 

Sixthly.  He  usurped  the  investiture  of  the  superior  prelates, 
by  denying  them  the  right  of  entering  on  their  office,  though  ca- 
nonically  chosen  and  constituted,  until  he  had  bestowed  on  them 
the  pall. 

"  To  William,  archbishop  of  Rouen.  The  letters  you  have 
sent  to  us  pretend  a  sufficient  regard,  but  there  is  no  evidence 
whatever  of  its  sincerity,  since  were  it  real,  you  would  not,  like 
your  suffragans,  for  so  long  a  time  have  attached  little  import- 
ance to  visiting  the  threshold  of  the  apostles  ;  for  we  do  not  rec- 
ollect to  have  seen  any  one  of  you  from  the  time  that  the  divine 
condescension  advanced  us,  though  unworthy,  to  the  care  of  this 

'  Iiabbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  pp.  467,  468. 

'  Gregorii  VII.  Epist.  56.  lib.  i.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  pp.  104,  105. 


AND  THE   IMAGE.  421 

seat ;  which,  however,  was  not  much  to  be  expected,  as  you 
have  taken  little  pains  to  visit  our  legates  who  are  near  you. 
But  what  labor,  what  extraordinary  difficulty,  has  induced  you 
for  such  a  period  to  neglect  the  blessed  Peter,  when  from  the 
ends  of  the  world,  nations  newly  converted  to  the  faith  endeavor, 
women  as  well  as  men,  annually  to  visit  him  ?  Unless  apostolic 
mildness  withholds  us,  you  will  find  it  still  more  seriously  cen- 
sured in  you,  that  you  have  hitherto  put  off  obtaining  from  the 
apostolic  seat,  according  to  custom,  the  most  honorable  badge 
of  your  dignity,  the  pall.  For  we  presume  you  are  not  ignorant 
how  strictly  the  rule  of  the  holy  fathers  ordains  that  they  shall 
be  condemned,  who  for  three  months  from  their  consecration, 
neglect  to  obtain  the  pall  which  belongs  to  their  office.  As 
therefore  you  have  slighted  the  canon  of  the  holy  fathers,  we 
command  you  by  the  apostolic  authority,  not  to  venture  here- 
after to  ordain  a  bishop  or  priest,  or  consecrate  churches,  until 
you  have  obtained  from  this  seat  that  which  is  lacking  to  your 
honor,  the  pall.  We  admonish  you  and  your  suffragans  anew 
that  you  take  care  forthwith  to  remedy  the  aforesaid  defect,  lest 
if  you  continue  negligent  as  hitherto,  you  experience  for  the 
contempt  the  power  of  the  blessed  Peter  through  us,  with  a 
severity  greater  in  proportion  to  the  delay ."^ 

Seventhly.  But  beyond  these  assumptions  of  authority  over 
ecclesiastics,  he  claimed,  as  the  vicar  of  Christ,  a  supremacy 
also  over  all  princes,  and  power  to  excommunicate  them,  de- 
prive them  of  their  crowns,  absolve  their  subjects  from  alle- 
giance, and  bestow  their  kingdoms  on  whoever  he  pleased ; 
a  claim  which  Catholics  themselves  acknowledge  had  never 
been  advanced  by  any  other  pope. 

"  If  the  holy  apostolical  scat,  divinely  invested  with  sovereign 
power,  judges  spiritual  things,  why  not  also  secular?  But,  per- 
haps it  may  be  thought  that  the  regal  dignity  is  superior  to  the 
episcopal.  How  much  they  diffisr  may  be  seen  from  their  ori- 
gin. The  pride  of  men  invented  the  regal ;  the  episcopal  was 
instituted  by  the  divine  benignity.  That  incessantly  grasps  at 
vain-glory  ;  this  aspires  continually  to  the  heavenly  life.  If  you 
compare  the  episcopal  honor  and  sublimity,  to  the  splendor  of 
kings  and  the  diadem  of  princes,  the  latter  are  as  inferior  as  lead 
to  gold."2 

"  Who  doubts  that  the  priests  of  Christ  are  the  fathers  and 
masters  of  kings,  princes,  and  all  believers  ?    And  would  it  not 

'  Gregorii  VII.  Epist.  i.  lib.  i.\.  Labbei  Concil.  toin.  xx.  p.  3.S9. 
"  Gregorii  VII.  Epist.  ii.  lib.  iv.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  p.  209. 


4^2  THE  TWO-HORNED   WILD  BEAST 

be  acknowledged  as  a  wretched  insanity,  if  a  son  should  attempt 
to  subjugate  a  father  to  himself,  or  a  disciple  a  master,  and  sub- 
ject him  to  his  power  by  unjust  obligations,  by  whom  it  is  be- 
lieved he  may  be  bound,  and  bound  not  only  on  earth  but  in 
heaven  ?"' 

"  The  holy  fathers,  receiving  with  great  veneration  and  preserv- 
ing this  prerogative,  sovereignly  conferred  on  the  blessed  Peter 
the  prince  of  the  apostles  by  a  heavenly  decree,  in  their  general 
councils  and  other  writings  and  acts,  denominated  the  holy  Ro- 
man church  the  Universal  Mother,  and  received  evidences  of  it 
in  doctrinal  decrees  for  the  confirmation  of  the  faith  and  judicial 
decisions,  agreeing  in  this  with  one  voice,  that  all  great  aflairs, 
and  especially  the  judgment  of  all  ecclesiastical  causes,  should 
be  referred  to  it  as  the  mother  and  head,  and  that  no  one  should 
or  can  appeal  from  it,  nor  reverse  or  reconsider  its  decisions.'"" 

"  O  blessed  Peter,  prince  of  the  apostles,  incline,  I  pray,  your 
gracious  ears,  and  hear  me  thy  servant,  whom  thou  hast  nour- 
ished from  infancy,  and  freed  thus  far  from  the  hands  of  the 
wicked  who  have  hated  and  hate  me  for  my  fidelity  to  thee. 
Thou  art  my  witness,  and  my  queen  the  mother  of  God,  and 
the  blessed  Paul  thy  brother,  and  all  thy  saints,  tliat  thy  holy 
Roman  church  drew  me  reluctant  to  its  government,  and  I  did 
not  regard  it  robbery  to  ascend  tliy  seat,  and  would  rather  finisli 
my  life  in  a  pilgrimage  than  usurp  tliy  place  in  a  secular  spirit 
for  worldly  glory.  And  therefore  I  believe  it  pleases  and  has 
pleased  thee  of  thy  grace,  and  not  of  my  works,  that  the  Christian 
people  specially  committed  to  thee  should  obey  me,  and  ihat  to 
me  especially  in  tiiy  stead  is  intrusted  the  power  given  by  God 
of  binding  and  loosing  in  heaven  and  earth.  Relying  therefore 
on  this  conviction  for  the  honor  and  defence  of  thy  church,  in 
behalf  of  the  omnipotent  (jl^od,  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  ISpirii, 
and  by  thy  power  and  authority,  I  divest  King  Henry,  son  ot 
Henry  the  emperor,  who  has  risen  against  thy  church  with  un- 
exampled pride,  of  the  government  of  the  kingdoms  of  Germany 
and  Italy  ;  and  absolve  all  Christians  from  the  obligation  of  the 
oath  which  they  have  sworn,  or  shall  swear  to  him  ;  and  com- 
mand that  no  one  should  serve  him  as  king :  for  it  is  right  tlial 
he  who  studies  to  lessen  the  lienor  of  the  church,  should  him- 
self lose  the  honors  which  he  possesses.  And  inasmuch  as  he 
disdained  obedience  as  a  Ciiristian,  and  did  not  return  to  the 
Lord  whom  he  had  forsaken,  but  participated  with  the  excom- 

'  Gregorii  VII.  Epist.  xxi.  lib.  viii.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  p.  .33.3. 
*  Gregorii  VII.  Epist.  xxi.  lib.  iv.  Lubbci  Coucil.  toin.  xx.  p.  332. 


AND  THE  IMAGE.  428 

municated,  contrary  to  the  command  which  I  sent  to  him,  thou 
art  a  witness,  for  his  salvation,  and  endeavored  to  rend  thy 
church  by  separating  himself  from  it ;  as  thy  vicar,  I  bind  him 
in  the  bond  of  an  anathema,  that  the  nations  may  know  and  con- 
fess that  thou  art  Peter,  and  that  on  thy  rock  the  Son  of  the 
living  God  has  built  the  church,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not 
prevail  against  it."^ 

He  prohibited  the  bishops  from  releasing  him  from  this  excom 
munication,  except  with  the  concurrence  of  the  pontiff.  "  We 
command  that  no  one  of  you  presume  to  absolve  him  from  this 
excommunication,  until  you  have  apprized  the  apostolic  seat  of 
his  reformation,  and  received  its  consent."^ 

He  directed  the  bishops,  dukes,  counts,  and  other  princes  of 
rank,  to  elect  another  emperor  in  his  place,  should  it  prove  neces- 
sary. "  If  lie  should  not  heartily  turn  to  God,  we  enjoin  that  one 
be  selected  for  the  government  of  the  kingdom,  who  will  give  sat- 
isfactory pledges  that  he  will  observe  the  conditions  which  I  have 
mentioned,  and  such  others  as  are  requisite  to  the  safely  of  the 
church  and  the  empire  ;  and  should  that  be  necessary,  in  order 
that  we  may  confirm  the  election  and  ratify  the  new  institution, 
make  the  transaction  known  to  us  as  soon  as  possible,  the  person 
and  his  manners,  that  proceeding  with  a  holy  and  beneficent  pur- 
pose, you  may  merit  through  divine  grace  the  favor  of  the  apos- 
tolic seat,  and  the  benediction,  in  all  respects,  of  the  blessed  Pe- 
ter, the  prince  of  the  apostles."^ 

He  again  deposed  him  in  1076,  and  conferred  the  empire  on 
Rodulph,  who  had  been  chosen  in  his  stead,  "  Again,  in  the  be- 
half of  the  omnipotent  God  and  the  blessed  Peter,  interdicting  to 
him  the  kingdoms  of  Germany  and  Italy,  I  divest  him  of  all  regal 
power  and  dignity,  forbid  that  any  Christian  should  obey  him  as 
king,  absolve  all  who  have  sworn  allegiance  to  him  from  their 
oaths,  and  ordain  that  he  and  his  favorers  shall  have  no  power  in 
battle,  nor  victory  in  this  life.  Moreover,  that  Rodulph,  whom 
the  Germans  have  chosen  as  their  king,  may  sway  and  defend  tiie 
German  empire  in  fidelity  to  you,  I,  on  your  behalf,  give  and  grant 
absolution  from  all  their  sins  to  all  who  faithfully  adhere  to  him, 
and  your  benediction  in  this  life  and  that  which  is  to  come  ;  for 
as  Henry  is  justly  divested  of  the  imperial  dignity  because  of  his 
pride,  rebellion,  and  treachery,  so  the  power  and  dignity  of  the 
empire  are  bestowed  on  Rodulph  for  his  humility,  obedience,  and 
truth."-* 

*  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  pp.  4G8,  469.  '  Bullar.  Mag.  torn.  i.  p.  27. 

•  Ibid.  torn.  i.  p.  27.  *  Ibid.  torn.  i.  p.  29. 


424  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

He  and  his  successors  deposed  several  other  kings  also  and 
princes.  In  addition  to  these  assumptions  of  authority  over  prin- 
ces, he  claimed  that  emperors  and  kings  were  vassals  of  his  throne, 
bound  to  acknowledge  him  as  their  superior,  swear  to  him  alle- 
giance, and  hold  their  dominions  in  dependence  on  him.  "  To  Al- 
phonsus,  king  of  Arragon  :  We  give  thanks  to  the  Almighty,  who 
sheds  splendor  over  your  glory  by  the  grace  of  his  presence,  uni- 
ting you  by  faith  and  devotion  to  the  blessed  Peter,  the  prince  of 
the  apostles,  to  whom  he  subjected  all  the  principalities  and  pow- 
ers of  the  world,  by  giving  him  the  right  of  binding  and  loosing 
in  heaven  and  on  earth.''^ 

He  accordingly  claimed  Hungary  as  a  dependence  of  the  Ro- 
mish church.  "  To  Geusa,  duke  of  Hungary  :  We  believe  it  is 
known  to  you  that  the  kingdom  of  Hungary  ought,  like  other  no- 
ble kingdoms,  to  be  free,  and  subject  to  no  kingof  another  kingdom, 
but  only  to  the  holy  universal  mother,  the  Roman  church,  which 
regards  subjects,  not  as  servants,  but  receives  all  as  sons.  But 
the  divine  displeasure  has  obstructed  the  dominion  of  it,  I  be- 
lieve, because  your  relative  obtained  it  by  usurpation  from  the 
emperor  of  Germany,  not  from  the  Roman  pontiffs.  Since,  how- 
ever, it  is  in  your  hands,  we  expect  you  to  take  care  of  the  church- 
es, to  show  a  supreme  concern  for  religion,  and  to  render  such 
obedience  to  the  legates  of  the  holy  Roman  church  when  they 
come  to  you,  as  may  aid  you,  through  the  intercessions  of  the 
blessed  Peter,  to  glory  and  honor  in  this  life  and  that  which  is  to 
come."^ 

"  We  are  anxious  to  procure  peace,  if  possible,  between  you 
and  your  relative  king  Solomon,  so  that  justice  may  be  maintain- 
ed, that  each  may  be  satisfied  with  what  is  his,  and  not  pass  the 
bounds  of  rectitude  and  good  usage,  and  that  thence  tlie  king- 
dom, which  has  hitherto  flourished  chiefly  by  your  means,  may 
become  such,  that  its  king  shall  not  be  a  secondary  monarch. 
For  when  the  sovereignty  of  the  blessed  Peter,  prince  of  the  apos- 
tles, was  contemned,  whose  kingdom  it  is,  we  believe  your  pru- 
dence is  aware,  the  king  subjected  himself  to  the  German  empe- 
ror, and  obtained  the  title  of  vice-king.  But  the  Lord  providing 
against  the  injury  done  to  his  prince,  by  his  fiat  transferred  the 
control  of  the  kingdom  to  you.  And  so  if  he  had  before  any  right 
to  the  kingdom,  he  deprived  himself  of  it  by  that  sacrilegious 
usurpation.""* 

'  Gregorii  vii.  Epist.  vi.  lib.  vii.  Labbei  Coiicil.  torn.  xx.  p.  292. 

*  Gregorii  vii.  Epist.  Ixiii.  lib.  ii.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  ji.  174. 

*  Gregorii  vii.  Epist.  Ixx.  lib.  ii.  Labbei  Concil.  toin.  xx.  p.  180. 


AND  THE  IMAGE.  425 

He  professed  to  bestow  the  throne  of  Russia  on  the  heir  to  that 
monarchy.  "  To  Demetrius  king  of  Russia  :  Your  son  visiting 
the  threshold  of  the  apostles,  came  to  ns,  desiring  to  receive 
your  kingdom  by  the  gift  of  St.  Peter  through  our  hands  ;  and 
promising  due  fidelity  to  the  blessed  Peter  the  prince  of  the  apos- 
tles, earnestly  solicited  it,  affirming  that  without  doubt  his  re- 
quest would  be  ratified  and  confirmed  by  you,  if  it  were  granted 
by  the  grace  and  authority  of  the  apostolic  seat.  And  as  his  vows 
and  requests  seemed  reasonable,  both  from  your  consent  and  his 
earnestness,  we  have  at  length  assented  to  them,  and  delivered 
to  him,  in  behalf  of  St.  Peter,  the  government  of  your  king- 
dom."i 

He  claimed  Spain  also  as  a  dependence  of  St.  Peter.  "  To  the 
king,  counts,  and  other  princes  of  Spain  :  We  trust  your  wisdom 
is  not  ignorant  that  the  holy  and  apostolical  seat  is  the  head  and 
universal  mother  of  all  churches  and  nations,  which  the  divine 
clemency  foreordained  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  his  name  by 
the  faith  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  through  the  evan- 
gelic and  apostolical  doctrine." 

"  Moreover,  we  wish  it  to  be  made  known  to  you, — which  in- 
deed it  is  not  agreeable  to  us  to  do,  but  is  highly  necessary  to 
you,  not  only  for  your  future,  but  your  present  glory, — that  the 
kingdom  of  Spain  was  by  ancient  treaties  made  over  in  right  and 
propriety,  to  the  blessed  Peter  and  the  holy  Roman  church."^ 

He  made  similar  claims  on  other  princes,  and  drew  several  of 
them  to  an  acknowledgment  of  subordination  to  him,  and  exact- 
ed from  them  an  oath  of  allegiance.  He  extorted  tlie  following 
pledge  of  subservience  from  the  emperor  of  Germany  :  "  I  will 
from  this  hour  be  true,  by  a  genuine  fidelity,  to  the  apostle  Peter 
and  his  vicar  pope  Gregory,  and  whatever  the  pope  commands 
me  in  the  words, — by  a  true  obedience, — I  will  as  becomes  a 
Christian  faithfully  observe."-^ 

He  induced  Bertrannus,  count  of  Provence,  to  surrender  to 
him  his  dominions,  and  swear  to  him  allegiance  :  "  I,  Bertran- 
nus, by  the  grace  of  God  count  of  Provence,  for  the  remission 
of  my  sins  and  those  of  my  parents,  present,  give,  and  grant,  my 
whole  prerogative,  as  far  as  it  pertains  to  me  by  the  right  of  my 
parents,  to  Almighty  God,  to  the  holy  apostles  Peter  and  Paul,  and 
to  my  lord  Gregory  VH.  the  pope,  and  all  his  successors,  so  that 
whatever  hereafter  pleases  the  lord  pope  Gregory  respecting  me 

'  Gregorii  vii.  Epist.  Ixxiv.  lib.  ii.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  p.  183. 

'  Gregorii  vii.  Epist.  xxviii.  lib.  iv.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  pp.  231,235 

•  Gregorii  vii.  Epist.  iii.  lib.  ix.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  p.  343. 

54 


426  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

and  my  prerogative,  I  will,  williout  contradiclion,  do.  All  the 
churches  which  are  in  my  possession,  I  will  yield  wholly  to  my 
lord  Gregory  the  pope  aforesaid,  and  all  his  successors,  and  will 
aid,  as  far  as  I  am  able,  in  governing  them  justly,  and  according 
to  the  divine  will." 

"  I,  Bertrannus,  by  the  grace  of  God  count  of  Provence,  will 
from  this  time  be  faithful  to  you  my  lord  pope  Gregory,  and  all 
your  successors  who  shall  be  chosen  through  the  superior  cardi- 
nals of  the  holy  Roman  church,  and  nothing  which  you  intrust  to 
me  will  I  knowingly  reveal  to  your  injury.  So  may  God  help 
me,  and  these  holy  gospels.'" 

The  structure,  in  the  erection  of  which  his  predecessors  had 
labored  nearly  three  centuries,  and  which  he  had  suddenly  ad- 
vanced to  such  a  towering  height,  was  soon  completed  by  those 
who  followed  him,  by  procuring  the  surrendry  by  the  emperors 
of  the  right  of  investiture  to  the  pontiff,  the  usurpation  from  the 
clergy  and  people  of  tlie  appointment  of  bishops  and  other  eccle- 
siastics, the  transference  by  appeal  of  all  ecclesiastical  causes  to 
Rome  for  decision,  and  the  formal  submission  of  the  church  to  all 
these  arrogations  of  authority. 

The  emperor,  in  1122,  relinquished  all  investitures  to  the  pope  : 
"  I,  Henry,  emperor  of  the  Romans,  for  the  love  of  God,  the  holy 
Roman  church,  and  lord  pope  Calistus,  and  for  the  help  of  my 
soul,  reserve  to  God  and  to  his  holy  apostles  Peter  and  Paul  and 
the  holy  Catholic  church,  all  investitures  by  the  ring  and  crosier, 
and  grant  that  in  all  the  churches  which  are  in  my  kingdom  and 
empire,  a  canonical  election  may  be  made,  and  a  free  consecra- 
tion. The  possessions  and  regalia  of  the  blessed  Peter  which  I 
have,  that  have  been  usurped  from  the  commencement  of  this 
quarrel  to  the  present  time,  whether  during  my  father's  reign  or 
mine,  I  will  restore  to  the  holy  Roman  church,  and  will  ,iid  in  the 
restoration  of  those  which  are  not  in  my  hands.  The  posses- 
sions also  of  all  other  churches  and  princes,  and  others,  whether 
ecclesiastics  or  laics,  which  I  hold,  I  will  restore  according  to 
the  judgment  of  the  princes,  and  to  justice,  and  will  faithfully  as- 
sist in  the  restoration  of  those  which  I  do  not  hold."^ 

The  election  of  bishops  began  in  the  twelfth  century  to  be 
withdrawn  from  the  clergy  of  the  dioceses,  and  assumed  by 
those  of  the  cathedrals  ■,^  but  the  pontiffs  soon  usurped  their  ap- 
pointment, and  at  length  reserved  to  tliemselves  the  disposition  of 

'  Gregorii  vii.  Epist.  xii.  lib.  ix.  Lubbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  p.  350. 

"  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  x.xi.  i)p.  '2T.i,  274. 

*  Van  Espcn  Jus.  Canon,  pr.  i.  tit.  xiii.  p.  C5.    Fcbronii  de  Statu  Eccl.  c.  vii.  e.  iv. 


AND  THE  IMAGE.  427 

all  lucrative  ecclesiastical  offices  throughout  the  empire.  Alex- 
ander III.,  who  held  the  papal  sceptre  from  1159  to  1181,  "in 
fulfilment  of  the  apostolic  office  which  required  him  to  provide 
for  those  ecclesiastics  who  had  no  benefices,"  ordered  the  abbot 
and  chapter  of  St.  Remigius  to  bestow  a  satisfactory  one  on  the 
bearer  of  his  letter.*  Many  such  commands  were  issued  by  the 
pontiffs  that  followed,  till,  in  1295,  Boniface  VIll.  reserved  the 
appropriation  of  all  vacant  benefices  to  the  apostolic  seat.  "  We 
are  obliged  in  our  pious  solicitude  to  take  care  that  dignities,  preb- 
ends, and  all  other  ecclesiastical  benefices,  with  or  without  care, 
which  are  known  at  the  apostolic  seat  to  be  vacant,  should  be  be- 
stowed on  competent  persons,  by  whom  the  obedience  that  is  due 
may  be  rendered  in  them,  and  the  divine  service  conducted  with 
care.  All  dignities,  therefore,  of  that  kind,  prebends,  churches, 
and  other  ecclesiastical  benefices,  which  at  this  seat  shall  be  cited 
in  court,  within  one  month  from  this  date  and  thereafter,  we  re- 
serve by  apostolic  authority  to  be  filled  by  this  seat,  and  decree 
that  whatever  shall  hereafter  be  otherwise  attempted  by  any  one, 
whoever  he  may  be,  either  by  a  prelate  or  any  other  authority, 
shall  be  invalid."' 

In  like  manner,  Clement  V.  in  1.305:  "Moved  by  this  con- 
sideration, the  church  especially  of  Bordeaux,  and  monastery  of 
the  holy  cross  of  that  city  also,  vacant  by  the  death  of  the  abbot, 
and  generally  patriarchal,  archiepiscopal,  episcopal  churches, 
monasteries,  priories,  and  all  ranks,  dignities,  or  offices,  of  what- 
ever order  or  condition  they  are,  and  also  canonries,  prebends, 
churches,  with  or  without  care,  and  all  other  ecclesiastical  ben- 
efices, by  whatever  name  they  are  called,  which  are  known  at 
the  apostolic  seat  to  be  vacant,  and  which  shall  become  vacant 
during  our  pontificate,  we  reserve  by  apostolic  authority  to  be 
appro])rialed  and  filled  by  our  appointment."'^ 

Appeals  to  the  court  of  Rome,  which  through  the  arts  of  the 
pontiffs  had  become  frequent  as  early  as  the  ninth  century,^  they 
in  the  twelfth  succeeded  in  rendering  general,  not  only  in  great 
causes,  but  those  of  little  importance.  Thus  pope  Alexander  III. 
to  the  archbishop  of  Rheims  :  "  As  the  holy  Roman  church  is 
by  the  divine  disposal  constituted  the  head  and  mistress  of  all 
churches,  and  consultations  and  causes  are  referred  to  it  from 
different  parts  of  the  world,  we  are  pleased  that  you  ask  counsel  in 

'  Alexandii  Epist.  xliii.  append,  i.  Labbei  Coneil.  torn.  xxi.  p.  951. 

^  Decret.  Extravag-.  lib.  iii.  tit.  ii.  c.  i.  p.  11 70. 

'  Ibid.  c.  iii.  p.  1171. 

*  Labbei  Coneil.  torn.  xv.  pp.  436^10.     I'"ebronii  de  Statu  Eccl.  c.  iii.  b.  7.      , 


428  THE  TWO-HORNED    WILD    BEAST 

respect  to  various  questions  of  right,  and  commend  your  pru- 
dence.'" 

"  In  regard  to  appeals  in  inferior  causes,  we  wish  you  to  liold 
that  they  are  to  be  carried  in  whatever  causes  they  are  made, 
however  slight  they  may  be,  not  less  than  when  made  in  the 
greater."^ 

By  this  means  the  interests  of  all  ecclesiastical  litigants 
throughout  the  empire  were  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  court 
of  Rome,  and  all  the  motives  of  poverty  and  wealth,  degradation 
and  honor,  fear  and  hope,  to  which  men  are  accessible  who  are 
struggling  with  each  other  for  property,  office,  and  rank,  employed 
to  reduce  all  classes  to  a  servile  submission  to  the  Roman  see. 

And  finally,  this  supremacy  of  the  pontiff  over  the  whole 
church,  was  formally  admitted  and  asserted  by  the  church  itself, 
and  an  acknowledgment  of  his  assumed  authority,  and  a  promise 
of  obedience  to  him,  made  conditions  of  admission  to  ecclesias- 
tical offices. 

The  doctrine  of  his  supremacy  was  introduced  into  the  canons 
by  a  forged  letter  of  Calixtus  I.  ''■  It  does  not  become  the  mem- 
bers to  depart  from  the  head.  Instead,  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures, all  the  members  should  follow  the  head.  But  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  apostolic  church  is  the  mother  of  all  churches, 
from  whose  laws  you  can  by  no  means  with  propriety  deviate. 
Even  as  the  Son  of  God  came  to  do  the  will  of  the  Father,  so 
you  also  should  fulfil  the  will  of  your  mother,  which  is  the  church, 
the  head  of  which  is  the  Roman  church.  Nothing,  therefore, 
can  be  regarded  as  legitimate,  that  is  done  contrary  to  her  dis- 
cipline."^ 

The  fourth  Laleran  council  also,  under  Innocent  III.  in  1215  : 
"  Ratifying  the  ancient  prerogatives  of  the  patriarchal  seats, 
with  the  approbation  of  this  holy  universal  synod,  we  ordain 
that  after  the  Roman  church,  which  by  divine  appointment  as  the 
mother  and  mistress  of  all  the  faithful  of  Christ,  holds  supreme 
authority  over  all  others  ;  the  Conslaiuinopolitan  church  shall 
obtain  the  first,  the  Alexandrian  the  second,  that  of  Antioch  the 
third,  and  that  of  Jerusalem  the  fourth  place  ;  its  proper  dignity 
being  preserved  to  each,  so  that  after  their  prelates  shall  liave 
received  from  the  Roman  pontiff  the  pall,  which  is  the  badge  of 
the  plenitude  of  pontifical  power,  and  sworn  to  him  fidelity  and 
obedience,  they  may  lawfully  give  the  pall  to  their  suffragans, 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xxi.  p.  1079.  Decret.  Gregorii  ix.  lib.  ii.  tit.  xxviii.  c.  5. 
'  Decret.  Grefjorii  ix.  lib.  ii.  tit.  xxviii.  c.  11. 
.      '  Decret.  Gratiani  Dist.  xii.  c.  i. 


AND    THE    IMAGE.  429 

receiving  from  them,  on  liis  behalf,  a  profession  conformable  to 
the  canons,  and  promise  of  obedience  to  the  Roman  church."' 

So  also  the  councils  of  Basle  and  Florence.  "  We  likewise 
declare  that  the  holy  apostolic  seat  and  the  Roman  pontiff,  have 
the  primacy  over  the  whole  world  ;  and  the  Roman  pontiff  is  the 
successor  of  the  blessed  Peter,  the  prince  of  the  apostles,  and  the 
true  vicar  of  Christ,  the  head  of  the  whole  church,  and  the  flither 
and  teacher  of  all  Christians  ;  and  that  full  power  was  given  him 
by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  the  blessed  Peter,  of  binding,  ruling, 
and  governing  the  universal  church."^ 

And  at  length,  by  the  bull  of  Pius  IV.,  all  who  were  intro- 
duced into  the  sacred  ofhce,  were  required  to  acknowledge  "  the 
holy  Catholic  and  apostolic  Roman  church,  as  the  mother  and 
mistress  of  all  churches,  and  promise  a  true  obedience  to  the 
Roman  pontiff,  the  successor  of  the  blessed  Peter,  the  prince  of 
the  apostles,  and  vicar  of  Jesus  Christ."^ 

He  has  thus  been  owned  as  the  supreme  head  of  the  whole 
Catholic  church  for  more  than  six  hundred  years,  and  the  ac- 
knowledgment of  him  in  that  relation  has  been  made  the  great 
test  in  that  communion  of  orthodoxy.  They  who  ventured  dur- 
ing that  period  to  deny  his  authority  over  all  the  hierarchies,  and 
reject  his  decrees  as  a  usurpation,  rendered  themselves  more 
obnoxious  than  by  any  other  act  to  the  pontifical  anathema,  and 
the  forfeitures,  tortures,  and  death,  which  were  for  ages  inflicted 
on  all  who  resisted  his  claims.  "  That  no  one  may  venture  to 
deny  that  the  pontiff  has  those  prerogatives,  they  excite  a  fear  of 
the  crime  of  sacrilege,  saying,  '  It  is  sacrilege  to  dispute  the 
power  of  the  pope,  for  the  pope  is  the  cause  of  causes.  No  in- 
quiry therefore  is  to  be  made  in  regard  to  his  power,  as  there 
can  be  no  cause  of  the  first  cause.'  Can  a  higher  earthly  sover- 
eignty be  conceived  than  that  of  the  pope,  as  falsely  represented 
by  these  authors.  Scarce  a  politician  can  be  found,  who  ascribes 
greater  power  to  the  most  absolute  despotism."* 

Thus  by  these  successive  steps,  after  a  struggle  of  more  than 
four  centuries,  the  ecclesiastics  of  all  the  hierarchies  in  the  em- 
pire, were  united  in  one  vast  organization,  with  the  pontiff  as 
their  supreme  legislative  and  judicial  head,  and  a  single  ecclesi- 
astical government  established  over  the  whole  Roman  church, 
after  the  model  of  the  civil  government  of  the  ancient  empire 
under  Constantine  and  his  successors.     It  is,  accordingly,  de- 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xxii.  pp.  990,  991.  ^  Ibid.  torn.  xxxi.  p.  1031. 

'  Concil.  Trident,  edit.  Lips.  1839,  p.  111.     Febronii  de  Stat.  Eccl.  c.  ii.     Bel- 
larmini  de  Rom.  Pont.  lib.  ii.  c.  xiii.  p.  63.  *  Fobronii  de  Statu  Eccl.  prefat. 


430  THE    TWO-HORN  ED    WILD    BEAST 

nominated  by  Catholics  themselves  a  monarchy.  "  All  Catholic 
doctors  agree  in  this,  that  the  ecclesiastical  government  com- 
mitted to  men  by  God  is  a  monarchy."^  Bellarmine  devotes 
his  first  book  "  of  the  Pontiff,"  to  prove  that  such  is  and  ought 
to  be  its  government.  "  If  the  monarchical  is  the  best  form  of 
government,  as  we  have  shown,  and  it  is  certain  that  the  church 
of  God  instituted  by  Christ  its  head,  who  is  supremely  wise, 
ought  to  be  governed  in  the  best  manner,  who  can  deny  that  its 
rule  ought  to  be  monarchical  ?"^ 

The  canonists  are  accustomed  accordingly  to  denominate  the 
pope  a  king.  "  The  pope  may  be  called  a  king.  He  is  the 
prince  of  princes,  and  lord  ot  lords.  He  is  as  it  were  a  God  on 
earth.  He  is  above  right,  superior  to  law,  superior  to  the  canons. 
He  can  do  all  things  against  right,  and  without  right.  He  is 
greater  than  all  the  saints  except  Peter.  Some  say  he  is  greater 
than  an  apostle,  and  not  bound  by  the  commands  either  of  Peter 
or  Paul.  His  sentence  prevails  against  the  judgment  of  the  whole 
world.  His  sole  will  is  instead  of  reason  in  the  bestowment  of 
ecclesiastical  offices.  He  does  not  commit  simony  in  selling 
benefices.  He  may  deprive  any  one  of  his  office,  without  any 
cause.  He  is  able  to  free  from  obligation  in  matters  of  positive 
right,  without  any  cause,  and  they  who  are  so  released  are  safe 
in  respect  to  God.  He  can  take  away  a  possession  from  one 
church,  and  give  it  to  another,  even  without  a  cause  ;  and  no  one 
can  say  to  him.  Why  doest  thou  so  ?  He  is  not  bound  by  treaties. 
The  pope  and  Christ  make  one  consistory.  He  can  make  justice 
of  injustice.  He  can  change  the  substance  of  things,  and  make 
a  thing  out  of  nothing.     He  can  change  squares  into  circles.'^ 

The  pontiff's  were  as  absolutely  the  legislative  and  judicial 
head  of  this  ecclesiastical  kingdom,  as  the  emperors  from  Con- 
stantine  to  Augustulus  were  of  the  civil  empire,  and  imposed 
whatever  laws  they  pleased  on  subordinate  ecclesiastics  and  on 
the  church  by  decrees,  in  the  same  manner  as  those  emperors 
enacted  laws  by  edicts.  The  decrees,  bulls  of  canonization, 
sentences,  charters,  and  other  legislative  and  judicial  acts  of  the 
pontiffs,  from  Gregory  VH.  in  1073,  to  Benedict  X.IV.  in  1757, 
collected  in  the  Bullarium  JIagnum,  fill  nineteen  folios.  Many 
others  are  contained  in  the  decretals  and  councils. 

They  appointed  to  all  ecclesiastical  offices  throughout  the  em- 
pire, as  tlie  Christian  emperors  appointed  to  all  civil  and  military 
offices  in  their  dominions. 

*  Bcllariniiii  de  Rom.  Pont.  lib.  i.  c.  v.         ''  Ibid.  lib.  i.  c.  i.x;.  p.  527. 
'  Fcbrouii  de  Statu  Eccl.  praef. 


ASD    THE     IMAGE.  431 

"  The  canonists  held,  that  '  the  bishops  are  not  the  immediate  vi- 
cars of  Christ,  but  only  of  the  pope.  All  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction 
resides  alone  in  the  pope,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  whole  civil 
power  resides  in  the  emperors  who  now  reign  as  absolute  mon- 
archs.  All  bishops,  archbishops,  and  patriarchs,  are  his  mere 
oilicials.  The  pope  fills  the  lowest  offices  through  the  plebeians 
and  other  inferiors,  the  intermediate  through  the  bishops,  and  the 
highest  himself.  Bishops  are  not  necessary  to  individual  churches. 
All  offices  may  be  filled  by  prelates  invested  with  a  quasi  epis- 
copal jurisdiction.  The  sacrament  of  confirmation  may  every- 
where be  delegated  by  the  supreme  pontiff  to  simple  priests,  for 
whose  ordination  it  is  sufficient  sometimes  that  any  bishop  comes 
from  abroad.  If  that  is  done,  the  divine  law  will  be  satisfied'  — 
And  the  doctrine  results  naturally  from  the  monarchy  ascribed 
to  tiie  pope,  and  universal  pontificate,  having  the  whole  world  as 
a  diocese,  as  defined  by  the  courtiers."^ 

They  exacted  oaths  of  fidelity  from  all  whom  they  advanced 
to  important  offices  ;  as  the  emperors  exacted  engagements  of 
fidelity  from  their  civil  magistrates.  Archbishops  and  other  pre- 
lates swore  fidelity  in  the  following  terms.  "  I  will  from  this 
hour,  above  all,  be  faithful  to  the  blessed  Peter  and  pope  Grego- 
ry Vll.  and  their  successors,  who  are  elected  by  the  superior 
cardinals.  I  will  not  do  any  thing  by  counsel  or  act  to  deprive 
them  of  life,  limb,  or  the  papacy,  or  that  they  may  be  caught  at  a 
disadvantage.  The  synod  to  which  they  shall  call  me,  either  by 
messengers  or  letters,  I  will  attend  and  canonically  obey ;  or  if 
tiot  able,  will  send  my  representative.  I  will  give  my  aid  to 
retain  and  defend  the  Roman  papacy,  and  the  regal  insignia  and 
prerogatives  of  St.  Peter,  as  far  as  is  consistent  with  the  main- 
tenance of  my  own  rank  and  rights.  The  counsels  which  they 
intrust  to  me,  either  themselves  or  through  their  legates  or  letters, 
I  will  not  reveal  to  any  one  knowingly  to  their  injury.  I  will 
treat  the  Roman  legate  in  coming  and  going  with  honor,  and  aid 
in  his  necessities.  I  will  not  communicate  knowingly  with  those 
whom  they  exconnrmnicate  by  name,  I  will  fiiithfuUy  aid  the 
Roman  church  with  secular  troops  when  I  shall  be  requested. 
All  these  I  will  observe,  except  so  far  as  exempted  by  their  ex- 
press license."" 

They  established  courts  in  which  all  violations  of  their  laws 
were  tried,  and  a  tribunal  at  the  capital  for  the  decision  of  ap- 
peals. There  were  gradations  of  rank  in  the  hierarchy,  hke  those 
of  the  magistrates  of  the  civil  einpire.     The  hierarchies,  as  na- 

*  febronii  de  Statu  Eccl.  prtef.  ^  Labbci  Coucil.  toiu.  xx.  pp.  525,  526, 


432  THE  TWO-HORNED  WiLD  BEAST 

lionalized  by  Constantine,  were  formed  in  each  patriarchate,  after 
the  model  of  the  civil  government  in  the  provinces.  The  hierar- 
cliy  of  the  western  kingdoms  under  the  pope,  was  formed  after 
that  pattern  ;  having  archbishops  or  metropolitans  at  the  head  of 
the  clergy  of  each  nation,  or  large  district,  and  bishops,  abbots, 
and  a  long  catalogue  of  subordinate  ranks,  under  each  metro- 
pohtan. 

They  levied  taxes  for  their  support  on  ecclesiastics  and  laics. 
An  annual  tribute,  under  the  name  of  Peter-pence,  was  paid  by 
the  English  for  several  centuries.^  A  similar  tax  was  demanded 
by  Gregory  VII.  of  France,  but  not  paid.  "  Let  all  Gaul  be  in- 
formed that  every  family  should  pay  at  least  one  penny  annually 
to  the  blessed  Peter,  and  acknowledge  him  as  their  father  and 
master  in  the  ancient  manner."'^  They  reserved  to  themselves  a 
year's  income  of  all  vacant  benefices,  extorted  vast  sums  from  the 
superior  prelates  for  the  pall,  exacted  a  price  for  all  ecclesiastical 
offices  in  their  gift,  and  drew  immense  revenues  from  the  igno- 
rant and  superstitious,  by  the  sale  of  indulgences  and  masses,  and 
the  promise  of  forgiveness  to  those  who  presented  offerings  at  the 
shrines  of  martyrs,  and  visited  the  churches  of  the  capital  with 
gifts  at  the  jubilees. 

They  inflicted  ecclesiastical  penalties  on  the  violators  of  their 
laws  ; — exclusion  from  communion,  suspension  from  office,  depo- 
sition, excommunication,  and  a  sentence  to  eternal  death. 

Tliis  vast  hierarchy  was  thus,  in  all  its  great  features,  a  coun- 
terpart to  the  imperial  rule  under  the  Christian  emperors,  and  is 
most  appropriately  denominated  an  image  of  the  wild  beast  that 
received  the  death-wound  and  lived. 

Its  authors,  the  influences  by  which  they  were  prompted,  and 
the  period  of  its  erection,  were  also  in  conformity  with  the  rep- 
resentation of  the  vision.  It  was  erected  subsequently  to  the 
gift  to  the  pope  of  a  civil  dominion,  and  after  he  became  invested 
with  his  second  horn.  The  edict  of  Constantine  conferring  a 
civil  dominion  on  the  pontiff,  which  was  one  of  the  forged  docu- 
ments employed  to  induce  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  to  erect 
I  he  image,  was  fabricated  between  the  repulse  of  the  Lombards 
by  Pepin  in  755,  and  the  gift  of  their  territory  to  the  pope  by 
Charlemagne  in  773  ;  as  from  the  representation  of  Hadrian  I., 
it  is  apparent  that  it  was  used  on  that  occasion  to  induce  the 
French  monarch  to  yield  to  the  claims  of  the  pontiff,  and  con- 

'  Liugard's  Hist.  England,  vol.  ii.  cliap.  1,  p.  105. 

'•"  Grcgorii  VII.  Epist.  23,  lib.  viii.  Labbei  Coucil.  torn.  xx.  p.  338.  Mosheira.. 
Hist.  Ch.  cent.  xi.  p.  ii.  c.  2. 


AND  THE    IMAGE.  433 

firm  him  in  the  possession  of  his  territories  as  a  civil  prince.'  It 
is  probable  that  the  whole  series  of  false  letters,  ascribed  by  Isi- 
dore to  the  early  pontiffs,  which  were  the  great  instrument  by 
which  the  princes  and  bisliops  of  the  nations  were  induced  to 
yield  the  prerogatives  arrogated  by  the  pontiff,  were  forged  du- 
ring that  period.  They  were  first  published  during  the  reign  of 
Charlemagne,  became  extensively  known  before  the  middle  of 
the  ninth  century,  and  ere  the  close  of  that  age,  were  generally 
received  as  authentic,  and  treated  as  part  of  the  canon  law.^ 

VIII.  It  was  at  the  instigation  and  demand  of  the  pontiffs  that 
the  princes,  clergy,  and  people  out  of  the  papal  territory,  sub- 
mitted their  hierarchies,  which  had  before  been  independent,  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  pope,  and  exalted  him  to  the  power  of  an 
ecclesiastical  monarch  over  them.  The  scheme  was  originated 
by  the  pontiffs,  and  pursued  and  accomphshed  by  their  arts, 
against  a  powerful  opposition,  not  only  from  the  emperors  of 
Germany,  and  kings  of  England  and  France,  but  also  from  many 
of  their  great  prelates. 

IX.  And  finally,  the  image  was  erected  by  the  inhabitants  of 
the  earth,  the  princes,  ecclesiastics,  and  people  of  the  kingdoms 
exterior  to  the  papal  territory,  not  by  the  pontiffs  themselves. 
They  had  no  power  by  their  mere  will  to  alter  the  constitution 
of  the  hierarchies  of  those  kingdoms.  It  was  not  till  they  had 
become  invested  with  the  prerogatives  of  an  ecclesiastical  des- 
potism, that  they  could  exert  that  power.  They  derived  it  from 
the  official  acts  of  the  princes  and  prelates,  and  the  assent  of  the 
people.  The  monarchs  surrendered  to  them  the  right  of  invest- 
iture, the  prelates  sanctioned  that  gift,  they  acquiesced  in  their 
reservation  to  themselves  of  vacant  benefices  and  other  arroga- 
tions,  and  enforced  on  their  subjects,  by  civil  penalties,  the  de- 
crees, canons,  and  judicial  sentences  of  the  pontiffs,  as  the  head 
of  the  Catholic  church. 

X.  The  popes  thus  exalted  to  supreme  power  over  the  church 
of  the  ten  kingdoms,  caused  that  as  many  as  would  not  worship 
the  hierarchy  of  which  they  were  the  head,  should  be  put  to  death. 

Dissent  from  the  faith  and  worship  of  the  Catholic  church,  and 
a  denial  of  the  right  of  the  pontiff  to  legislate  over  the  laws  of 
God,  were  made  by  the  popes  and  councils  capital  offences,  and 
all  who  were  convicted  of  them  were  delivered  to  the  civil  ma- 
gistrates, and  punished,  if  incorrigible,  with  death.     "  We  shall 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  ii.  p.  607  ;  torn.  xii.  pp.  820,  821. 

*  S.  Baluzii  Prsef.  ad  Dial.  Ant.  August,  de  Emend.  Grat. — Petri  de  Marca,  Con- 
cord. Sacerd.  et  Imp.  lib.  iii.  c.  v. ;  lib.  vii  c.  xx. 

55 


434  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

show,"  says  Bellarmine,  "  that  incorrigible  heretics,  and  espe- 
cially the  relapsed,  may  and  ought  to  be  rejected  by  the  church, 
and  punished  by  the  secular  powers  with  temporal  penalties,  and 
also  with  death.'"  Lucius  III.  and  Innocent  III.,  by  formal  de- 
crees, required  them  to  be  seized,  condemned,  and  delivered  by 
the  bishops  to  the  civil  magistrates,  to  be  capitally  punished,  and 
enjoined  the  princes  and  magistrates  to  execute  on  them  the  sen- 
tences denounced  by  the  canon  and  civil  laws.  "  Supported  by 
the  presence  and  energy  of  our  beloved  son  Frederick,  the  illus- 
trious emperor  of  the  Romans,  by  the  council  of  our  brethren, 
other  patriarchs,  archbishops  also,  and  numerous  princes,  who 
have  assembled  from  different  parts  of  the  world,  we  rise  by  this 
decree  against  all  heretics,  and  by  apostolical  authority  condemn 
every  sect,  by  whatever  name  it  is  designated. 

"••In  the  first  place,  therefore,  we  subject  the  Cathari,  the  Pa- 
tarini,  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  the  Passagini,  and  the  Arnaldists, 
to  a  perpetual  anathema  ;  and  as  some  claim  authority  to  preach, 
although  the  apostle  says,  '  How  can  they  preach  except  they  be 
sent?'  all  who  venture  to  preach,  either  publicly  or  privately, 
without  authority  from  the  apostolic  seat,  or  the  bishop  of  the 
place  ;  and  all  who  dare  to  think  and  teach  otherwise  in  respect 
to  the  sacrament  of  the  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
or  baptism,  or  the  remission  of  sins,  or  matrimony,  or  the  other 
sacraments  of  the  church,  than  the  holy  Roman  church  preaches 
and  practices  ;  and  generally,  all  whom  the  Roman  church,  or 
individual  bishops  in  their  dioceses,  or  the  clergy  themselves, 
when  the  seat  is  vacant,  with  the  concurrence,  if  necessary,  of 
the  neighboring  bishops,  shall  judge  to  be  heretics,  shall  be  bound 
with  the  same  bond  of  a  perpetual  anathema.  All  their  harbor- 
ers,  and  defenders,  and  all  who  yield  them  any  patronage  or  favor, 
we  consign  to  the  same  sentence. 

"  And  as  it  sometimes  happens  that  the  severity  of  ecclesias- 
tical discipline  is  condemned  by  those  who  do  not  understand  its 
virtue,  we  ordain  that  clergymen  who  are  clearly  convicted  of  the 
aforesaid  errors,  shall  be  divested  of  the  prerogatives  of  their 
order,  deprived  of  their  benefices,  and  delivered  to  the  secular 
power  to  be  appropriately  punished,  unless,  immediately  on  the 
detection  of  their  error,  they  voluntarily  return  to  the  Catholic 
faith,  and  consent  publicly,  at  the  will  of  the  bishop  of  the  dio- 
cese, to  abjure  their  heresy,  and  make  a  proper  satisfaction.  But 
a  laic,  who  is  infected  with  that  pest,  unless  abjuring  the  heresy 
and  making  satisfaction,  he  instantly  flies  to  the  orthodox  faith, 
'  Bellarinini  de  Laicis,  torn.  ii.  p.  548 


AND  THE    IMAGE.  435 

IS  to  be  left  to  the  will  of  the  secular  )30wer  to  suffer  a  vengeance 
in  correspondence  with  his  crime.  They  moreover  who  shall  be 
found  marked  by  the  mere  suspicion  of  the  church,  unless  they 
demonstrate  their  innocence  in  a  manner  suited  to  the  nature  of 
the  suspicion,  and  to  their  rank,  shall  be  subjected  to  the  same 
sentence.  But  they  who  after  having  abjured  their  error,  or 
cleared  themselves  in  a  trial  by  their  bishop,  shall  be  convicted 
of  relapsing  to  the  heresy  they  have  abjured,  we  order  to  be  left 
to  the  severest  sentence  without  any  further  hearing,  and  their 
goods  appropriated  to  the  churclies  which  they  served,  according 
to  the  canons. 

"  We  add,  moreover,  by  the  advice  of  the  bishops,  and  at  the 
suggestion  of  the  emperor  and  his  princes,  that  each  archbishop 
and  bishop  shall  himself,  or  by  his  archdeacon,  or  other  honest 
and  suitable  persons,  once  or  twice  a  year,  go  through  the  parish 
in  which  it  is  reported  that  heretics  reside,  and  compel  three  or 
more  men  there  of  good  reputation,  or  the  whole  population  if  it 
seem  expedient,  to  swear  that  should  any  one  know  persons  who 
are  heretics,  or  any  who  hold  secret  assemblies,  or  differ  in  hfe 
or  manners  from  the  usage  of  the  faithful,  he  will  endeavor  to 
point  them  out  to  the  bishop  or  archdeacon.  And  the  bishop  or 
archdeacon  shall  call  the  accused  before  him,  and,  unless  they 
clear  themselves  to  his  satisfaction,  or  should  they,  after  having 
cleared  themselves,  relapse  to  their  former  heresy,  they  are  to 
be  punished  according  to  his  judgment. 

"  If,  from  a  superstitious  objection  to  oaths,  any  of  them  should 
refuse  to  swear,  they  are  on  that  account  to  be  adjudged  here- 
tics, and  smitten  with  the  punishment  which  has  been  mentioned. 

"  We  enact,  moreover,  that  counts,  barons,  prefects,  and  con- 
suls of  cities  and  other  places,  at  the  admonition  of  the  archbish- 
ops and  bishops,  promise  under  oath,  that  whenever  they  shall 
be  required  by  them,  they  will  boldly  and  efficiently  aid  the 
church  against  heretics  and  their  accomplices,  and  study  in  good 
faith,  according  to  their  duly  and  power,  to  execute  in  the  cases 
of  which  we  have  spoken,  tlie  ecclesiastical  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  imperial  laws.  And  should  they  refuse  to  observe  their 
oath,  they  shall  be  divested  of  the  offices  which  they  enjoy  and 
become  ineligible  to  others.  They  shall,  moreover,  be  excom- 
municated, and  their  lands  put  under  an  interdict  of  the  church. 
A  city  that  excites  resistance  to  these  decrees,  or  neglects  at  the 
admonition  of  the  bishop  to  punish  those  who  resist,  shall  be 
deprived  of  the  commerce  of  other  cities,  and  divested  of  its 
episcopal  rank. 


436  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

"  All  favorers  also  of  heretics,  as  condemned  to  perpetual  in- 
fam}%  we  order  to  be  debarred  from  the  office  of  advocates,  from 
giving  testimony,  and  from  all  civil  employments.  If  they  are 
persons  who  are  exempt  from  the  jurisdiction  of  bishops,  and 
subject  only  to  the  power  of  the  apostolic  seat,  they  are  never- 
theless to  be  subject,  in  respect  to  these  statutes  against  heretics, 
to  the  judgment  of  the  archbishops  and  bishops,  and  notwith- 
standing their  prerogatives,  are  to  obey  them  as  the  delegates  of 
the  apostolic  seat."* 

Similar  canons  were  enacted  by  the  fourth  Lateran  council 
under  Innocent  III.,  in  1215.  "  We  excommunicate  and  anathe- 
matize every  sect  that  exalts  itself  against  the  holy  orthodox 
Catholic  faith  which  we  have  set  forth  above,  and  condemn  all 
heretics  under  whatever  name  they  are  reckoned  ;  and,  on  being 
condemned,  they  are  to  be  resigned  to  the  secular  powers  of 
their  place,  to  be  punished  with  proper  inflictions ;  the  clergy 
being  first  degraded  from  their  order.  The  goods  of  the  con- 
demned, if  laics,  are  to  be  confiscated ;  if  clergymen,  to  be  ap- 
propriated to  the  churches  from  which  they  drew  their  salaries. 

"  The  magistrates  also,  whatever  may  be  the  oflSces  they  fill, 
should  be  admonished,  and,  if  necessary,  compelled  by  an  eccle- 
siastical censure  to  pledge  themselves  by  a  public  oath  to  en- 
deavor, in  good  faith,  as  far  as  they  are  able,  to  exterminate  from 
the  lands  under  their  jurisdiction  all  heretics  who  are  condemned 
by  the  church,  so  that  hereafter  whenever  any  one  is  inducted 
into  office,  whether  ecclesiastical  or  civil,  he  may  be  required  to 
swear  that  he  will  execute  this  canon. 

"  And  should  a  civil  lord,  on  being  required  and  admonished 
by  the  church,  neglect  to  clear  his  territory  of  this  heretical 
nuisance,  let  him  be  bound  by  the  metropolitan  and  other  bish- 
ops of  the  province  with  the  bond  of  excommunication  :  and 
should  he  refuse  to  make  satisfaction  within  a  year,  let  it  be  sig- 
nified to  the  supreme  pontiff,  that  he  may  declare  his  vassals  to 
be  freed  from  allegiance  to  him,  expose  his  land  to  be  seized  by 
Cathohcs,  who,  exterminating  the  heretics,  may  possess  it  with- 
out opposition,  and  preserve  it  in  the  purity  of  the  faith. 

"  Catholics  who,  assuming  the  sign  of  the  cross,  shall  gird 
themselves  to  the  extermination  of  the  heretics,  shall  enjoy  the 
indulgence,  and  be  fortified  by  the  sacred  privilege,  which  are 
conceded  to  those  who  go  to  the  relief  of  the  holy  land."^ 

These  enactments  were  incorporated  in  the  decretals  of  Greg- 

^  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xxii.  pp.  476-478. 

»  Labbel  Concil.  torn.  xxii.  pp.  986,  987 ;  also  pp.  710,  778,  779,  785,  938. 


AND  THE  IMAGE.  437 

ory  IX.,  and  became  llie  law  of  the  church.'  Thus  the  Latin 
hierarchy  caused  them  to  be  put  to  death  who  dissented  from  its 
faith,  and  refused  to  pay  it  the  homage  which  it  required. 

Besides  these  endeavors  to  excite  the  magistrates  to  slaughter 
dissenters.  Catholics  who  were  not  magistrates  were  encouraged 
by  impunity  and  approbation  to  destroy  them.  Thus  Urban  II.  : 
"In  conformity  with  the  custom  of  the  Roman  church,  with 
which  you  are  acquainted,  impose  on  the  murderers  of  excom- 
municated persons  a  measure  of  penance  that  accords  with  the 
institution.  For  we  are  not  to  regard  them  as  homicides  be- 
cause, burning  with  the  zeal  of  the  Catholic  mother  against  the 
excommunicated,  they  happen  to  slay  some  of  them.  Lest,  how- 
ever, the  discipline  of  mother  church  should  fall  into  disuse,  ac- 
cording to  the  practice  we  have  mentioned,  impose  on  them  a 
suitable  penance,  in  order  that  they  may  conciliate  the  eyes  of 
divine  truth,  if  it  chance  that  through  human  frailty  they  have 
been  guilty  of  duplicity  in  that  violence."- 

XL  The  image  caused  all,  the  small  and  the  great,  the  rich 
and  the  poor,  and  the  free  and  the  enslaved,  to  impress  the  name 
of  the  wild  beast  or  the  number  of  its  name  on  their  right  hand, 
or  on  their  forehead,  as  the  worshippers  of  idols  were  accustom- 
ed to  inscribe  on  themselves  conspicuously  the  names  of  their 
deities,  or  such  letters  as,  in  their  arithmetical  use,  were  equiva- 
lent to  the  numbers  represented  by  their  names. 

The  name  of  the  ten-horned  wild  beast  is  the  name  of  the  race 
that  founded  the  empire  over  which  it  reigned  under  its  seventh 
head,  and  whose  language  is  the  language  of  its  population  and 
rulers,  and  is  Akts/voc:  therefore.  The  mark  is  the  three  letters, 
X-  i-  r.,  which  express  the  number  of  that  name.  To  mark  them- 
selves with  that  name  or  character,  in  a  manner  analogous  to  an 
inscription  or  brand,  was  therefore  formally  and  conspicuously  to 
assume  it,  or  show  by  open  and  decisive  acts  that  they  were  the 
worshippers  of  the  Latin  hierarchy,  formed  after  the  model  of 
that  wild  beast,  and  bearing  its  name.  Such  acts  were,  a  union 
with  the  Latin  or  Roman  Catholic  church,  adoption  and  profes- 
sion of  its  faith,  reception  of  its  sacraments,  and  obedience  to  its 
laws.  Those  who  submitted  to  its  rites,  offered  its  worship,  and 
honored  its  authority,  gave  as  public  and  ample  proof  that  they 
were  worshippers  of  its  hierarchy  as  though  they  had  testified  it 
by  branding  its  name  or  mark  on  their  foreheads  or  hands.  And 
all  were  compelled,  as  is  seen  from  the  decrees  of  Lucius  III. 

'  Decret.  Gregorii  IX.  lib.  v.  tit.  vii.  c.  9,  13. 
^  Labbei  Coiicil.  torn.  xx.  p.  713. 


438  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

and  Innocent  HI.,  to  give  that  public  proof  of  their  submission 
to  its  authority,  or  forfeit  their  hves. 

XII.  And  finally,  the  two-horned  wild  beast  caused  that  no 
one  should  be  able  to  buy  or  to  sell,  except  he  who  had  the  mark, 
the  name  of  the  wild  beast,  or  the  number  of  its  name. 

All  union  in  acts  of  religion  with  the  excommunicated,  was 
prohibited  by  the  false  canons  ascribed  to  the  apostles.^  The 
prohibition  was  extended,  by  the  forged  letters  of  Isidore,  to  all 
social  acts.  "  Those  who  have  been  excommunicated  by  the 
priests,  let  no  one  receive  before  a  fair  examination  by  each  par- 
ly, nor  join  them  in  prayer,  eating,  drinking,  or  a  kiss,  nor  bid 
them  hail ;  for  whoever  knowingly  communicates  with  them  in 
these  or  other  forbidden  acts,  subjects  himself  to  a  like  excom- 
munication."^ And  this  was  held  by  Hadrian  II.,  who  ascended 
the  pontifical  throne  in  867,  as  the  law,  and  enjoined  on  Hinc- 
mar,  archbishop  of  Rheims,  in  respect  to  Charles,  king  of  France. 
"  If  he  choose  to  persist  in  his  obstinacy  rather  than  reform  ac- 
cording to  our  commands,  withdraw  yourself  from  communion 
and  intercourse  with  him,  not  bidding  him  hail,  but  wholly  avoid- 
ing his  presence,  if  you  wish  to  have  ecclesiastical  intercourse 
with  us.''^  Though  that  command  was  resisted  b)'  Hincmar  and 
his  fellow  bishops,  as  uncanonical,  it  appears  to  have  become 
the  law  soon  after  of  the  church,  and  to  have  been  extended  to 
all  commercial  transactions;  as  Gregory  VII.,  in  1078,  repre- 
sents himself  as  induced  to  mitigate  it  out  of  compassion  to  the 
multitudes  who  were  debarred  from  the  means  of  life  by  the  pro- 
hibition. "  As  we  see  many  daily  perish  on  account  of  excom- 
munication, partly  from  ignorance,  scrupulousness,  fear,  or  ne- 
cessity ;  overcome  by  pity,  we  for  the  time  soften  the  sentence 
of  excommunication  as  far  as  we  can.  We  therefore,  by  apos- 
tolic authority,  release  from  anathema  wives,  children,  servants, 
captive  women,  or  slaves,  rustics,  and  all  others  who  are  not  the 
mmisters  of  the  excommunicated  in  such  a  relation  as  to  be  the  ex- 
ecutors of  their  wicked  designs  ;  and  those  also  who  unknowingly 
communicate  with  the  excommunicated,  or  with  those  who  com- 
municate with  the  excommunicated.  To  the  stranger  or  travel- 
ler who  passes  into  the  territory  of  the  excommunicated,  where 
he  cannot  buy,  or  has  not  the  means  of  buying,  we  give  liberty 
to  receive  from  the  excommunicated.     And  should  any  one  de- 

'  Can.  Apostol.  c.  x.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  i.  p.  31. 
'  Callisti  Epist.  ii.  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  i.  p.  741. 

'  Hadriani  Epist.  xxv.  Labbei  torn.  xv.  p.  847.  Bossuetii  Defens.  Decl  torn.  i. 
pp.  1G6,  167. 


AND  THE  IMAGE.  439 

sire  to  give  to  the  excommunicated  for  sustenance,  not  out  of 
pride,  but  from  humanity,  we  do  not  prohibit  it."^ 

The  prohibition  was,  however,  renewed,  and  enforced  with  the 
utmost  barbarity,  by  the  council  of  Tours,  under  Alexander  III., 
in  1163.  "  A  damnable  sect  rose  some  time  ago  in  the  district 
of  Toulouse,  which,  gradually  spreading  itself,  like  a  cancer, 
through  the  neighboring  regions,  has  now  infected  Gascony,  and 
many  other  provinces.  While  it  hid  itself  by  its  serpentine 
movements,  it  was  destructive  to  the  Lord's  vine  in  proportion 
to  the  secrecy  of  its  motion.  Wherefore  we  command  the  bish- 
ops and  all  the  Lord's  priests  residing  in  those  parts,  to  watch 
against  it,  and  enjoin,  under  the  threat  of  an  anathema,  that  no 
one,  wherever  the  followers  of  tiiat  sect  are  found,  should  ven- 
ture to  yield  them  a  retreat  on  his  lands,  give  them  succor,  or 
have  any  communion  whatever  with  them,  by  purchase  or  sale  ; 
so  that,  having  lost  all  human  aid,  they  may  be  compelled  to  re- 
turn from  the  error  of  their  way.  Let  whoever  shall  dare  to 
contravene  this  command,  be  struck  with  an  anathema,  as  a  par- 
taker of  their  iniquity."^ 

In  like  manner  the  third  Lateran  council  in  1179  :  "  Inasmuch 
as  in  Gascony,  Albigese,  the  province  of  Toulouse,  and  other 
places,  the  damnable  perversity  of  the  heretics  by  some  called 
Cathari,  by  others  Patarini,  by  others  Pubhcani,  and  by  others 
still  other  names,  so  that  they  now  no  longer  exercise  their  de- 
pravity secretly  as  some  do,  but  publicly  show  their  error,  and 
draw  the  simple  and  weak  to  unite  with  them  ;  we  sentence 
them,  and  their  defenders  and  harborers,  to  an  anathema,  and 
forbid  under  an  anathema  that  any  should  presume  to  keep  them 
in  their  houses,  or  on  their  lands,  sustain  them,  or  transact  any 
business  with  them."^ 

The  agencies  of  the  wild  beasts,  the  image,  and  the  people, 
thus  corresponded  in  all  respects  with  the  representations  of  the 
prophecy. 

The  views  which  expositors  have  given  of  this  passage  are 
very  dissimilar,  inconsistent  with  the  characteristics  of  the  sym- 
bols, and  at  war  with  analogy.  Grotius  interprets  the  two- 
horned  beast  as  denoting  magic,  which  is  to  make  a  living  being 
the  symbol  of  a  mere  art,  or  deceptive  agency,  and  is  therefore 
against  analogy. 

Mr.  Daubuz  exhibits  it  as  representing  the  two  patriarchal 
lines  of  Rome  and  Constantinople.     But  a  wild  beast  is  a  sym- 

'  Labbei  Concil.  torn.  xx.  p.  506.  ^  Ibid.  torn.  xxi.  p.  1177. 

=  Ibid.  torn.  xxii.  p.  232. 


440  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

bol,  not  merely  of  a  line  of  persons  of  the  same  rank,  but  of  a  vast 
combination  and  succession  of  persons  of  various  grades,  who 
together  fill  the  offices,  and  exert  the  various  powers  of  a  gov- 
ernment. It  represents  the  intermediate  and  lower  ranks,  there- 
fore, as  truly  as  the  higher  ;  and  its  chief  is  denoted  by  its  head, 
not  by  its  whole  body.  It  is  the  symbol  also  of  an  aggressive, 
cruel,  and  bloody  combination  of  rulers  ;  and  of  a  civil  and  mil- 
itary power  therefore,  not  merely  an  ecclesiastical.  But  the 
bishops  of  Constantinople  have  no  civil  or  military  power  :  nor 
have  those  of  Rome  simply  as  bishops.  Tiieir  power  as  civil 
monarchs  is  founded  by  them  on  the  gift  of  princes,  or  the  right 
of  conquest,  not  deduced  from  the  apostles  ;  and  was  acquired 
long  after  they  had  raised  the  fabric  of  their  ecclesiastical  hi- 
erarchy to  a  vast  height.  The  peculiar  actions  moreover  ascribed 
to  this  beast  have  no  counterpart  in  the  agency  of  the  bishops  of 
Constantinople.  They  never  caused  the  Gothic  nations  of  the 
western  empire  to  worship  the  first  wild  beast,  by  the  ascription 
to  Constantino  and  his  successors  of  the  rights  of  God  which 
they  impiously  arrogated  ;  nor  induced  them  to  subject  their  na- 
tional hierarchies  to  the  supremacy  of  the  pope.  So  far  from  it, 
they  were  rivals  of  the  Roman  patriarchs,  and  struggled  for  ages 
to  obstruct  their  power.  The  agencies  ascribed  to  tins  wild  beast 
towards  the  Gothic  conquerors,  it  is  notorious,  were  exerted  by 
the  Latin  hierarchy,  not  by  the  Greek. 

The  assumption  by  Vitringa,  tiiat  the  two-horned  beast  sym- 
bolizes the  two  orders  of  friars,  the  Dominican  and  Franciscan 
of  the  Catholic  church,  is  equally  exceptionable.  They  did  not 
constitute  a  civil  and  military,  nor  even  an  ecclesiastical  govern- 
ment ;  but  were  merely  two  among  the  numerous  orders  em- 
braced in  the  Catholic  hierarchy.  Nor  did  they  belong  wholly 
or  chiefly  to  the  hierarcliy  of  the  papal  territory.  A  vast  propor- 
tion of  them  were  civil  subjects  of  the  kings  represented  by  the 
horns  of  the  first  wild  beast,  and  exerted  their  agency  in  their 
dominions.  But  the  two-horned  wild  beast  symbolizes  tiie  ru- 
lers only,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  of  the  papal,  in  contradistinction 
from  the  other  kingdoms. 

Mr.  Faber  exhibits  the  two-horned  wild  beast  as  the  symbol 
of  the  spiritual  empire  of  the  papacy,  which,  whether  he  means, 
as  he  doubtless  does,  mere  territory,  or  population,  is  erroneous 
and  absurd.  If  it  be  the  mere  territory,  it  is  the  territory  of  the 
western  Roman  empire,  and  tlie  same  so  far  therefore,  according 
to  his  representation,  as  the  ten-horned  wild  beast  symbolizes. 
That  construction  is  against  analogy  also,  as  living  beings  are 


AND  THE   IMAGE.  441 

symbols  only  of  living  beings,  never  of  inanimate  objects.  If  it 
be  the  population  instead  of  territory,  who  then  are  they  whom 
this  beast  persuades  to  make  an  image  to  the  ten-horned  wild 
beast  ?  And  who  are  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  that  admire 
and  worship  that  monster  ? 

Mr.  Elliott's  exposition  of  this  symbol,  as  denoting  the  Ro- 
mish clergy  of  all  orders  beneath  the  pope,  is  obnoxious  to  sim- 
ilar objections.  By  far  the  greatest  part  of  them  neither  belonged 
to  the  hierarchy  of  the  papal  territory,  nor  were  subjects  of  the 
papal  civil  kingdom,  but  had  their  birth  within  the  dominions, 
and  exerted  theiragency  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  other  kings. 

Mr.  Mede  interpreted  the  symbol  of  the  pope  and  his  clergy, 
without  consideration  whether  the  latter  were  within  the  papal 
territory,  or  of  the  other  kingdoms  ;  which  is  to  confound  those 
who  are  symbolized  by  the  image,  with  those  whom  the  two- 
horned  wild  beast  represents. 

Dean  Woodhouse  regards  the  two  horns  as  denoting  the  pa- 
pists and  Mahometans.  But  who  then  does  the  beast  itself  de 
note  ?  Not  the  false  prophet,  as  he  represents.  That  were  to 
make  that  which  the  beast  denotes  less  than  that  which  is  sym- 
bolized by  its  horns,  inasmuch  as  the  false  teachers  who  are  rep- 
resented by  the  false  prophet  are  less  in  number  than  the  whole 
body  of  papists  whom  they  teach.  And  who  on  that  exposition 
are  the  subjects  of  the  horns  ?  As  they  are  symbols  of  a  suc- 
cession of  persons  exercising  a  government,  they  must  have  sub- 
jects and  a  territory.  If  the  whole  body  of  papists  and  Mahom- 
etans, then,  are  dynasties  or  governments,  whom  do  they  rule, 
and  where  are  their  dominions  ?  But  neither  the  whole  body  of 
the  papists,  nor  the  Mahometans,  are  rulers.  They  are  not  the 
bodies  therefore  denoted  by  the  horns.  Nor  have  the  Mahome- 
tans, or  their  rulers,  ever  exerted  the  agency  ascribed  to  the  wild 
beast.  They  never  caused  the  nations  of  the  western  empire  to 
worship  the  first  wild  beast,  nor  led  them  to  ado])t  the  Christian 
religion  as  the  religion  of  the  state,  and  place  their  national 
churches  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  pope. 

Mr.  Faber's  and  Mr.  Elliott's  supposition,  that  the  Romish 
regular  and  secular  clergy  arc  symbolized  by  the  horns,  is  equally 
exceptionable.  They  are  not  kingly  heads  of  a  government, 
either  civil  or  ecclesiastical. 

Mr.  Daubuz  regarded  the  image  as  the  same  as  the  two-liorned 
wild  beast,  which  causes  the  nations  to  make  and  worship  it. 
But  that  is  to  exhibit  it  as  existing  and  acting  before  it  was  made, 
and  contriving  and  prompting  its  own  production,  which  is  absurd, 

56 


442  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

Mr.  Whiston  exhibits  the  image  as  the  empire  of  Charlemagne. 
But  that  is  to  represent  it  as  a  territory  with  its  population,  in- 
stead of  an  organized  body  sustaining  a  resemblance  to  a  civil 
and  military  government,  and  therefore  of  a  different  order.  It 
is  also  to  make  it  the  same  as  a  large  part  of  the  empire  over 
which  the  ten-horned  wild  beast  reigned  ;  which  is  inconsistent 
with  the  representation,  and  fraught  with  absurdity.  Hovir  can 
the  Gothic  nations  be  said  to  have  made  that  territory  or  its  pop- 
ulation as  subjects  of  the  Frank  or  German  empire  ?  The  chief 
part  of  that  population  became  the  vassals  of  Charlemagne  by 
conquest,  not  by  their  own  volition,  or  the  will  of  the  Gothic 
nations  at  large.  How  can  it  be  said  that  the  whole  population 
of  the  ten  kingdoms  were  constrained  to  worship  that  empire  ; 
or  that  those  refusing  to  worship  it,  were  put  to  death  ?  Did 
those  dwelling  in  it  worship  themselves,  or  their  territory  ?  Did 
those  dwelling  without  its  limits  worship  it  or  its  inhabitants  ? 

Vitringa  regarded  the  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition  as  the  image  ; 
Bishop  Newton  the  pope  ;  but  their  want  of  correspondence  with 
the  symbol  is  sufficiently  apparent. 

Mr.  Cuninghame  regards  the  image  as  the  symbol  of  the  cor- 
rupt visible  church,  clergy  as  well  as  people.  He  proceeds,  how- 
ever, on  the  assumption  that  it  is  denominated  an  image  to  the 
wild  beast,  not  because  it  is  a  resembling  authoritative  organiza- 
tion, but  because  it  was  an  object  of  idolatrous  veneration  to  the 
people  of  the  Roman  empire  ;  which  is  wholly  to  mistake  the  ana- 
logy. An  image  is  a  structure  resembling  in  form  and  expression 
that  which  it  represents.  An  ecclesiastical  organization,  to  re- 
semble that  combination  of  rulers,  which  exercised  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Roman  empire  after  the  accession  of  Conslantine, 
must  therefore  be  a  hierarchy  of  a  similar  gradation  of  ranks, 
united  under  a  single  head.  He  assumes  also  that  it  was  an 
image  of  the  beast,  because  of  a  likeness  of  character  as  impious, 
idolatrous,  and  persecuting,  which  is  equally  to  misjudge  of  the 
analogy.  It  is  the  office  of  a  person's  image  to  represent  his 
bodily  form  and  expressions  of  countenance,  not  the  mere  char- 
acteristics of  his  agency.  Besides,  inasmuch  as,  except  those 
who  refused  to  worship  the  image,  the  whole  population,  small 
and  great,  rich  and  poor,  free  and  enslaved,  belonged  to  the  visi- 
ble church,  if  the  visible  church  were  the  image,  who  were  the 
worshippers  ? 

Mr.  Mede  exhibits  the  image  as  a  symbol  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire, and  as  denominated  an  image  of  it,  under  its  sixth  head, 
because  seduced  again  by  the  false  prophet  to  idolatry  ;  but  that 


AND  THE  IMAGE.  443 

is  to  misinterpret  the  wild  beast  as  well  as  the  image.  The 
wild  beast  of  iwo  horns  is  a  symbol  of  rulers,  not  of  an  empire 
manifestly  from  the  crown,  the  throne,  and  the  great  authority 
ascribed  to  it.  The  image  therefore  must  represent  an  analo- 
gous combination  of  rulers,  not  a  mere  territory  or  population. 
It  is  to  make  the  image  moreover  that  identically  which  it  de- 
notes, which  is  incongruous. 

Mr.  Faber  exhibits  the  image  as  a  mere  idol,  which  the  ten- 
horned  wild  beast  worshipped.  But  that  is  to  regard  it  as  of  the 
same  species  as  that  which  it  represents,  and  is  therefore  against 
analogy.  It  is  absurd  also  if  the  ten-horned  wild  beast  be  as  he 
interprets  it,  a  symbol  of  the  Roman  empire  geographically  con- 
sidered. What  on  that  assumption  can  be  meant  by  its  wor- 
shipping the  image  ?  Can  a  territory  exert  an  act  of  religious 
homage  ? 

Mr.  Elliott  regards  the  general  councils  of  the  church  of  west- 
ern Europe  as  the  image  ;  but  they  exhibit  none  of  the  requisite 
resemblances  to  the  rulers  of  the  Roman  empire  under  its  sev- 
enth head.  They  were  not  a  single  body,  continued  by  succes- 
sion and  transmitting  their  powers  from  one  generation  to  another, 
but  were  wholly  separate,  of  distant  periods,  and  independent  of 
each  other  for  existence  and  authority.  They  embraced  but  a 
part  of  the  rulers  of  the  church  of  the  ten  kingdoms  of  those  sev- 
eral periods,  not  the  whole  ;  and  were  in  that  res]>ect  unlike  that 
vast  combination  of  persons,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  ex- 
ercising office  in  the  Roman  empire,  symbolized  by  the  ten-horned 
wild  beast  under  its  head  that  received  the  death-wound.  They 
had  not  the  prerogatives  of  a  complete  government,  but  were 
merely  legislative  and  judicial,  not  executive,  and  were  subject 
to  both  an  ecclesiastical  and  a  civil  head  exterior  to  themselves. 

Dr.  Cressener, regarding  the  ten-horned  wild  beast  as  the  sym- 
bol of  the  Roman  empire,  exhibits  the  image  as  the  Roman 
Catholic  church  with  the  pope  as  its  head,  and  deems  its  like- 
ness to  the  wild  beast  to  consist  in  its  having  a  supreme  head 
like  the  imperial  government,  and  occupying  the  same  territory 
as  the  empire,  or  embracing  the  same  population.  But  that  is  to 
confound  the  teachers  and  rulers  of  the  church  which  the  image 
represents,  with  the  unofficial  members  who  are  their  wor- 
shippers. 

The  solutions  which  expositors  have  presented  of  the  name 
and  number  of  the  beast,  are  extremely  various,  and  exhibit  gen- 
erally a  singular  inattention  to  the  conditions  of  the  symbol. 
They  seem  neither  to  have  considered  that  the  rulers  of  the  an- 


444  THE  TWO-HORNED  WILD  BEAST 

cient  empire  under  its  last  head,  were  those  whom  the  Latin  and 
Gothic  population  of  the  new  were  induced  to  worship,  or  in- 
quired into  the  reason  of  that  homage  ;  nor  to  have  suspected 
that  it  was  after  the  dragon  under  that  seventh  head  that  the 
image  was  modelled,  or  that  any  reason  existed  for  the  selection 
of  the  name  of  the  race  from  which  the  rulers  symbolized  by  that 
head  sprung,  rather  than  the  name  of  the  rulers  and  races  of  the 
modern  empire.  They  have  generally  indeed  neglected  to  dis- 
criminate between  an  empire  and  its  rulers,  and  treated  alike  the 
ten-horned  wild  beast,  the  wild  beast  of  two  horns,  and  the  dra- 
gon, as  a  symbol  of  a  territory  and  its  population,  not  of  a  combi- 
nation and  succession  of  persons  exercising  the  government  of  a 
people  or  community  of  nations  :  and  have  accordingly  presented 
names  of  persons,  of  cities,  of  empires,  and  even  of  classes  of 
agents,  as  the  counterpart  of  the  symbol,  on  the  mere  ground 
that  they  are  significant,  and  represent,  or  are  associated  with  the 
requisite  number.  Thus  Vitringa  offers  Adonikam,  the  name  in 
Hebrew  of  one  who  returned  from  the  Babylonian  captivity  be- 
cause of  its  meaning,  the  Lord  has  risen,  and  the  number  of  his 
family,  six  hundred  sixty-six.  Ezra  chap.  ii.  13.  Mr.  Faber  pre- 
sents the  Greek  words  BXa.(f(pri'xcig  and  'Aifog-arris,  merely  denoting 
agents  of  certain  characters,  never  appellatives  of  a  nation  or 
its  rulers.  Others  have  suggested  the  title  in  Greek  of  the  Latin 
empire,  'H  Aanv/)  BatfiXsia :  but  that  is  a  title  of  the  empire,  not  of 
the  race  by  whom  it  was  founded,  and  from  whom  its  rulers  de- 
rived their  designation,  and  is  not  in  accordance  therefore  with  the 
conditions  of  the  symbol.  There  is  no  one  that  meets  all  those 
conditions  except  AaTsms  which  was  first  suggested  by  Irenfeus 
toward  the  close  of  the  second  century,  and  has  been  more  gen- 
erally deemed  the  true  one  than  any  other,  though  with  but  very 
inadequate  views  of  the  reasons  which  demonstrate  it  to  he  that 
which  the  Spirit  of  God  designed,  or  the  grounds  on  which  it  was 
chosen  in  preference  to  other  designations. 

It  is  notorious  that  the  Catholic  church  of  the  papal  territory  in 
Italy,  was  denominated  immediately  after  the  rise  of  those  king- 
doms, the  Latin  church,  in  contradistinction  from  the  Greek,  the 
Syrian,  and  the  Alexandrian,  and  has  borne  that  appellative  tlirough 
every  subsequent  age  to  the  present ;  and  that  the  Latin  language 
is  the  sole  vehicle  of  its  worship,  its  rites,  its  instructions,  its 
laws,  its  correspondence,  and  the  acts  also  of  its  civil  govern- 
ment. Whoever  therefore  entered  that  church  and  received  its 
baptism,  united  in  its  worship,  or  became  the  subject  as  a  mem- 
ber, of  any  of  its  official  agency,  assumed  and  became  distin- 


AND  THE  IMAGE.  445 

guished  by  that  appellative  as  conspicuously  and  as  necessarily, 
as  those  became  marked  by  it,  who  drew  their  birth  from  the 
ancient  Latins  ;  and  as  the  offspring  of  other  nations  derive  their 
national  appellative  from  their  parentage.  And  as  the  Latin  church 
extended  its  jurisdiction  over  the  hierarchies  of  the  other  Euro- 
pean kingdoms,  that  appellative  was  applied  to  them  all.  The 
other  ancient  churches  were  also  distinguished  in  like  manner 
by  an  appellative  drawn  from  their  race,  their  country,  or  theii 
capital,  as  the  Greek,  the  Syrian,  the  Judean,  the  Egyptian,  or 
Alexandrian.  On  the  other  hand,  the  churches  within  the  west 
ern  empire,  dissenting  from  the  Latin  or  Catholic,  were  univer- 
sally distinguished  by  different  names,  drawn  generally  from 
their  founders,  the  people  of  whom  they  were  formed,  or  some 
peculiar  characteristic  ;  and  their  worship  was  as  universally 
conducted  in  a  different  language  ;  as  those  of  the  Albigenses, 
the  Waldenses,  the  Wicklifites,  the  Lollards,  the  Bohemian, 
the  Lutheran,  the  Reformed,  the  Genevan,  the  English,  and  the 
Scotch. 

Those  who  joined  the  Latin  church,  in  receiving  that  name, 
received  the  patronymic,  or  appellative  of  the  race  from  wiiich 
the  rulers  of  the  ancient  empire  descended,  who  first  adopted 
Christianity  as  the  religion  of  the  state,  gave  the  church  a  na- 
tional establishment,  organized  its  teachers  and  rulers  into  a 
hierarchy,  and  forced  their  subjects  to  become  its  members,  or 
subjected  them  to  persecution  and  death  ;  and  were  thence  guilty 
of  usurping  the  rights  of  God.  And  these  important  resem- 
blances of  its  principles  and  agency,  as  well  as  that  its  shape 
was  modelled  after  that  civil  power,  were  reasons  undoubt- 
edly that  the  nationalized  Catholic  hierarchies  of  the  ten  king- 
doms, in  their  union  as  one  under  the  pope,  are  denominated  its 
image.  And  the  reason  that  Aarsivog  was  chosen  as  the  name, 
which  those  who  enter  that  apostate  church  are  said  to  receive, 
is  that  that  appellative,  which  they  receive  by  their  union  to  that 
church  and  that  alone,  is  common  to  it  with  that  ancient  dragon 
rule,  and  suggests  its  resemblance  to  it  under  its  seventh  head, 
in  form,  in  principle,  and  in  agency. 

•Prichards'  Research,  vol.  iii.  pp.  201-257. 


446  THE  HUNDRED  FORTY-FOUR  THOUSAND 


SECTION  XXXIII. 
CHAPTER    XIV.    1-5. 

THE  HUNDRED  FORTY-FOUR  THOUSAND  ON  MOUNT  ZION. 

And  I  looked,  and  behold  the  Lamb  stood  on  the  Mount  Zion,  and 
with  him  a  hundred  forty-four  thousand,  having  his  name  and  the 
name  of  his  Father  written  on  their  foreheads.  And  I  heard  a  voice 
from  heaven,  as  a  voice  of  many  waters,  and  as  a  voice  of  loud  thun- 
der. And  the  voice  which  I  heard,  [was]  as  of  harpers  harping  on 
their  harps.  And  they  sing  as  it  were  a  new  song  before  the  throne, 
and  before  the  four  living  creatures  and  the  elders.  And  no  one  was 
able  to  learn  the  song,  except  the  hundred  forty-four  thousand  who 
were  redeemed  from  the  earth.  They  are  they  who  have  not  been 
defiled  with  women  ;  for  they  are  pure.  They  are  they  who  follow 
the  Lamb  wherever  he  may  go.  They  have  been  redeemed  from 
men,  a  first  ofiering  to  God,  and  to  the  Lamb  ;  and  in  their  mouth 
no  falsehood  was  found,  for  they  are  spotless. 

The  position  from  which  the  apostle  saw  this  spectacle,  was 
probably  that  from  which  he  had  beheld  the  emergence  and 
agency  of  the  wild  beast,  and  therefore  on  the  earth.  The 
Mount  Zion,  on  which  the  hundred  forty-four  thousand  stood, 
was  that  of  the  heavenly  tabernacle,  and  their  station  was  doubt- 
less on  the  glassy  sea,  or  part  answering  to  the  court  in  which 
the  worshippers  stood.  The  song  accordingly  which  he  heard 
from  heaven,  was  their  song ;  not  the  song  of  the  other  re- 
deemed, or  of  angels.  This  is  apparent  from  the  representation 
that  it  was  sung  before  the  living  creatures  and  elders,  and  that 
no  one  was  able  to  learn  it,  but  the  hundred  forty-four  thousand. 
To  suppose  it  to  have  been  sung  by  others,  is  to  suppose  they 
had  already  learned  it. 

That  it  is  a  new  song  denotes  that  it  is  uttered  on  a  new  and 
peculiar  occasion,  and  for  new  and  peculiar  gifts.  The  palm- 
bearing  multitude,  chapter  vii.  9-17,  represents,  we  have  reason 
to  think,  the  body  of  living  believers  who  are,  at  Christ's  advent, 
to  bo  changed  from  mortal  to  immortal  according  to  the  predic- 
tion 1  Cor.  XV.  51-54,  But  the  144,000  on  Mount  Zion  undoubt- 
edly represent  a  different  body,  and  a  body  that  is  to,  be  dis- 
tinguished by  a  different  and  higher  gift ;  and  probably  therefore 
a  transfiguration  to  glory.  The  reason  that  they  are  to  receive 
that  distinction  is,  that  they  are  not  defiled  with  idolatry.  They 
have  not  belonged  to  the  apostate  church,  nor  sanctioned  the  blas- 
phemous usurpations  of  the  wild  beast;  but  are  pure  worshippers 


ON  MOUNT  ZION.  447 

of  God,  without  falsehood  and  without  spot.  Therefore  they  are 
redeemed  from  the  earth,  a  first  offering  to  God  and  to  the 
Lamb,  and  are  thereafter  to  follow  him  wherever  he  goes,  the 
attendants  of-  his  throne,  and  spectators  of  all  his  great  acts  in 
judging  his  foes,  and  redeeming  his  saints.  They  have  the 
name  of  the  Lamb  and  of  his  Father  written  on  their  foreheads, 
and  are  distinguished  by  that  also  from  the  worshippers  of  the 
image,  and  are  the  same  as  the  hundred  forty-four  thousand 
sealed,  whose  numbers  were  heard  by  the  apostle  in  the  vision 
of  the  seventh  chapter. 

To  have  the  name  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb  written  on  the 
forehead,  is  to  be  brought  to  a  public  and  decisive  manifestation 
of  allegiance  to  the  Most  High,  and  him  alone,  as  of  title  to  re- 
ligious homage,  and  right  to  impose  religious  laws  ;  and  of  faith 
alone  in  Christ  as  Redeemer :  in  contradistinction  from  those 
wdio  sanction  the  impious  assumptions  of  civil  rulers  and  apostate 
prophets,  that  claim  dominion  over  the  rights  and  laws  of  God  ; 
make  themselves,  and  demons,  and  idols,  objects  of  homage  ; 
and  supersede  the  Redeemer  by  other  mediators  and  other 
grounds  of  reliance.  As  the  worshippers  of  the  image  of  the 
wild  beast  impress  on  themselves  its  mark  and  number,  by  en- 
tering the  society  of  that  apostate  hierarchy,  submitting  to  its 
rites,  offering  its  idolatrous  worship,  and  obeying  its  sway  ;  so 
the  worshippers  of  God  become  impressed  with  his  name  and 
the  name  of  the  Lamb,  by  refusing  to  join  that  idolatrous  train, 
and  publicly  asserting  the  sole  right  of  God  to  institute  the  laws 
of  religion  and  receive  a  religious  homage,  paying  to  him  alone 
the  worship  he  demands,  and  placing  in  Christ  exclusively  the 
trust  he  requires  as  Redeemer. 

In  the  vision  of  the  sealing  in  the  seventh  chapter,  the  agents 
by  whom  this  great  movement  is  to  be  excited,  are  symbolized 
by  the  angel  ascending  from  the  sun-rising, — an  emblem  of  a  new 
day,  or  the  commencement  of  a  new  era, — bearing  the  seal  of 
God ;  and  the  result  of  their  agency  on  the  servants  of  God,  is 
denoted  by  the  impress  of  the  seal  on  their  foreheads.  In  the 
second  vision  of  that  chapter,  a  great  multitude  of  every  nation, 
and  tribes,  and  peoples,  and  tongues,  was  exhibited  to  the  apos- 
tle as  standing  before  the  throne  and  before  the  Lamb,  clothed  in 
white  robes,  with  palms,  and  uttering  like  these  with  a  loud  voice 
the  song  :  The  salvation  to  our  God  who  sits  on  the  throne,  and 
to  the  Lamb  ;  and  the  Lamb  is  represented  as  thenceforth  dwell- 
ing with  them  and  leading  them  to  the  fountains  of  the  waters  of 
life.     That  spectacle,  as  was  shown  in  its  exposition,  exhibits  the 


448  THE   HUNDEED   FOETT-FOUE  THOUSAND 

living  believers  at  the  advent  of  Christ,  changed  to  immortal, 
l^resented  to  the  Father,  adopted  as  sous  and  heirs,  and  assigned 
to  the  stations  that  become  them  in  the  everlasting  empire 
which  is  then  to  be  established  on  the  earth.  And  if  so,  the  gift 
with  which  these  are  to  be  distinguished  is  probably  a  change  to 
glory  like  that  to  which  the  risen  saints  are  to  be  exalted.  And 
their  being  a  first  fruit  lies  in  their  being  the  first  oflering  to 
God  in  that  form;  while  those  who  are  afterwards  to  be  trans- 
figured in  like  manner,  will  constitute  the  harvest  of  the  living 
to  glory. 

Mr.  Daubuz  supposes  the  hundred  forty-four  thousand  to  rep- 
resent the  church  in  the  time  of  Constantino  ;  and  their  song 
to  symbolize  its  celebration  at  that  period  of  its  deliverance  from 
persecution,  and  its  legal  establishment.  But  that  is  disproved  by 
many  considerations.  It  assumes  that  the  Mount  Zion,  on  which 
the  Lamb  stood  with  the  hundred  forty-four  thousand,  was  on 
earth,  and  thence  implies  that  the  Lamb  was  personally  and  vis- 
ibly present  with  the  church  in  its  celebration  of  its  adoption  and 
nationalization  by  Constantine.  As  the  Lamb  symbolizes  him- 
self as  truly  as  the  hundred  forty-four  thousand  symbolize  those 
whom  they  represent,  so  his  visibility  in  the  vision  as  truly  sym- 
bolizes his  visibility  in  the  scene  which  it  foreshadows,  as  their 
visibihty  in  it  foresliows  the  visibihty,  in  the  symbolized  scene, 
of  those  whom  they  represent.  To  reject  this  great  law,  is  to 
deny  to  the  visions  all  certainty  of  meaning.  If  a  visible  pres- 
ence do  not  symbolize  a  visible  presence,  then  an  agent  may  not 
represent  an  agent,  nor  an  agency  an  agency,  and  all  possibility 
is  at  once  extinguished  of  demonstrative  interpretation.  But  no 
visible  advent  of  Christ  took  place  at  the  celebration  by  the  church 
of  its  adoption  by  Constantine.  The  vision  cannot  represent  that 
celebration  therefore. 

The  character  of  the  church  under  that  monarch,  was  precise- 
ly the  reverse  of  that  ascribed  to  the  hundred  forty-four  thousand 
So  far  fi'om  having  the  name  of  God  written  on  their  foreheads,  the 
Christians  of  that  period  as  a  body,  paid  a  religious  homage  to 
Constantine  and  his  associates,  who  were  the  first  or  dragon  wild 
beast  under  its  seventh  head,  by  acquiescing  in  his  usurpation  of 
dominion  over  the  rights  of  God,  his  erection  of  them  into  a  civil 
community,  his  making  his  will  the  law  of  their  duty  to  God,  and 
enforcing  obedience  to  it  by  the  penalties  of  confiscation,  impris- 
onment, exile,  and  death ;  an  arrogation  of  the  divine  preroga- 
tives the  most  stupendous  of  which  creatures  have  ever  been  guil- 
ty, and  on  account  of  which  that  prince  and  his  successors,  though 


ON  MOUNT  ZION.  449 

nominally  Christian,  are  exhibited  by  the  Spirit  of  God  under  the 
symbol  of  the  seventh  head  of  the  dragon.  Yet,  so  far  as  appears, 
not  a  voice  of  objection  w^as  raised  against  it  by  any  of  the  con- 
spicuous bishops  at  that  period.  Those  of  the  people  of  God  who 
refused  that  homage,  are  represented  in  the  twelfth  chapter,  as 
flying  into  the  desert,  there  to  be  nourished  in  seclusion  and  sor- 
row twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years.  They  cannot,  therefore, 
be  those  who  in  this  vision  are  exhibited  as  assembled  on  Mount 
Zion  in  the  presence  of  the  Lamb,  and  singing  a  new  song  which 
no  one  else  was  able  to  learn. 

The  hundred  forty-four  thousand  who  have  the  name  of  God 
on  their  foreheads,  are  most  clearly  exhibited  as  cotemporaneous 
with  apostates  who  bear  the  mark  of  the  beast,  and  are  long  sub- 
sequent, therefore,  to  the  period  of  Constantine  and  his  succes- 
sors, as  they  are  subsequent  at  least  to  the  rise  of  the  ten  king- 
doms, the  acquisition  by  the  Italian  hierarchy  of  a  civil  domin- 
ion, and  the  erection  of  the  image.  And  finally,  it  is  manifest 
from  the  representations  of  the  seventh  chapter,  that  the  period  of 
the  sealing  is  subsequent  to  the  opening  of  the  sixth  seal ;  after, 
therefore,  the  series  of  judgments  that  are  immediately  to  precede 
the  advent  of  the  Redeemer  has  commenced,  and  thence  between 
the  first  vial  and  the  seventh  trumpet ;  and  more  than  fifteen  cen- 
turies, therefore,  after  the  reign  of  Constantine. 

Mr.  Mede,  Mr.  Whiston,  Vitringa,  Bishop  Newton,  Dean 
Woodhouse,  Mr.  Faber,  regard  the  hundred  forty-four  thousand 
as  representing  the  pure  worshippers  during  the  long  triumph  of 
the  wild  beast  and  false  prophet,  and  especially  the  Waldenses, 
the  Wicklifites,  the  Bohemians,  and  the  Protestants.  But  the 
sealing  itself  is  exhibited  in  the  seventh  chapter,  as  accomplished 
after  the  opening  of  the  sixth  seal,  and  when,  therefore,  the  tri- 
umph of  the  wild  beast  has  at  least  nearly  closed,  and  its  judg- 
ment begun.  It  is  represented  also  as  accomplished  within  a  brief 
period  before  the  winds  of  political  violence  and  revolution  are 
excited  to  injure  the  earth,  the  sea,  and  the  trees.  It  cannot  be 
a  period,  therefore,  of  general  persecution  of  the  pure  worship- 
pers ;  nor  a  period  of  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years,  as  no  such 
season  of  calm  has  ever  been  witnessed  in  the  politics  of  the  ten 
kingdoms. 

The  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  sealed,  is  a  full  and 
emphatic  denial  and  resistance  of  the  assumed  right  of  civil  ru- 
lers and  legalized  hierarchies  to  legislate  in  the  place  of  God, 
make  their  will  the  ground  of  obligation  and  rule  of  faith  and  wor- 
ship, and  treat  a  dissent  from  it  as  a  crime  against  them  and 

57 


450  THE  HUNDRED  FORTY-FOUR  THOUSAND 

against  the  Almighty.  But  tliat  attitude  was  never  fully  as- 
sumed by  the  Waldenses,  the  Wicklifites,  the  Bohemians,  nor  in 
any  degree  by  the  Protestants  as  a  body.  No  formal  objection 
was  ever  made  by  them  generally  against  the  assumption  by  ru- 
lers of  that  power  over  their  subjects.  They  only  protested 
against  their  exerting  it  in  the  patronage  of  an  apostate  faith  and 
worship,  in  place  of  the  true.  The  Bohemians,  the  Lutherans, 
and  the  Reformed  more  especially,  openly  asserted  the  right  and 
duty  of  rulers  to  nationalize  the  true  church,  and  enforce  its  doc- 
trines and  rites  on  their  subjects.  Those  bodies,  therefore,  em- 
inent as  multitudes  of  them  were  for  piety,  illustrious  as  thou- 
sands and  myriads  of  them  were  as  martyrs,  were  yet  without 
that  peculiarity  which  is  to  distinguish  the  sealed,  and  thence 
cannot  be  the  host  symbolized  by  the  hundred  forty-four  thou- 
sand. 

The  believers  of  the  period  during  which  the  persecuting  pow- 
ers prevail,  are  exhibited  under  the  symbols  of  the  woman  nour- 
ished in  the  desert,  her  children  on  whom  the  dragon  makes 
war,  and  the  witnesses  in  sackcloth  who  prophesy  before  peoples 
and  nations  and  tongues  and  kings  a  thousand  two  hundred  and 
three  score  days. 

And  finally,  the  hundred  forty-four  thousand  are  exhibited  as 
a  first-fruit  to  God  and  the  Lamb,  while  a  harvest  of  such,  it  is 
implied,  is  afterwards  to  take  place.  They  are  a  first-fruit  to 
God,  as  they  are  the  first  who  are  to  be  redeemed  from  the  earth 
by  a  transfiguration  to  glory.  That  they  are  first  m  that  respect, 
indicates  therefore  that  the  other  children  of  God  who  are  to 
stand  to  them  in  the  relation  of  a  harvest  to  first-fruits,  are  also 
at  a  later  period  to  be  transformed  in  like  manner  to  glory.  The 
change  of  the  living  saints  from  mortal  to  immortal,  is  not  there- 
fore to  raise  them  to  the  highest  form  of  being  to  which  they 
are  destined,  but  is  only  to  be  preliminary  to  their  elevation  to 
the  rank  to  which  the  risen  saints  are  exalted,  according  to  the 
f)rediction  in  respect  to  all  believers,  "We  look  for  the  Saviour, 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  shall  change  our  vile  body  that  it 
may  be  fashioned  like  unto  his  glorious  body." 

Mr.  Elliott's  assumption  that  the  hundred  forty-four  tliousand 
are  the  Protestants,  is  open  to  the  same  objections.  He  like  i\Ir. 
Mede,  Mr.  Daubuz,  Mr.  Whiston,  Vitringa,  and  Dean  Wood- 
house,  regards  them  as  stationed  on  the  earth.  But  that  renders 
the  supposition  that  they  represent  the  believers  of  the  age  of 
Constantine,  the  Waldenses,  the  Wicklifites,  the  Bohemians,  or 
the  Reformers,  and  their  successors,  still  more  irreconcilable  with 


ON  MOUNT  ZION.  451 

the  symbol.  If  their  station  be  on  the  earth,  then  manifestly  they 
are  not  the  utterers  of  the  song,  inasmuch  as  that  descended  from 
heaven,  and  was  chanted  before  the  throne,  and  before  or  exte- 
rior to  the  living  creatures  and  elders.  But  if  they  are  not  the 
singers,  they  are  not  exhibited  as  exerting  any  agency,  which 
were  unlike  all  other  living  symbols,  and  without  any  conceiva- 
ble reason.  Besides,  to  suppose  they  are  on  earth,  and  yet  en- 
joy the  visible  presence  of  the  Lamb,  and  hear  and  understand 
the  songs  of  heaven,  is  to  suppose  that  their  faculties  are  raised 
to  a  supernatural  strength,  or  that  they  enjoy  miraculous  means 
of  knowledge.  Their  standing  in  the  presence  of  the  Lamb,  and 
if  they  are  the  hearers,  hearing  the  song  from  heaven,  cannot  be 
interpreted  of  their  attaining  a  knowledge  of  the  doctrines  re- 
specting Christ  and  the  heavenly  world,  that  are  taught  in  the 
Scriptures.  The  song  is  a  new  one,  prompted  by  a  new  and  pe- 
culiar occasion,  and  was  never  before  sung,  therefore,  in  heaven 
or  on  earth.  If  then  they  hear  it,  it  is  indisputably  by  a  miracle, 
like  that  by  which  the  apostle  heard  it.  If  they  see  the  Lamb, 
as  he  saw  him,  hear  the  heavenly  chant,  know  like  him  from 
whom  it  proceeds,  and  understand  its  import,  then  they  manifest- 
ly are  prophets  in  the  same  sense  as  he  was.  To  suppose  it  oth- 
erwise,— to  regard  the  representation  as  indicating  nothing  more 
than  the  illumination  believers  of  the  age  of  Constantine,  of  the 
Waldenses,  the  Bohemians,  the  Reformers,  or  their  followers  of 
the  present  day  enjoy,  were  to  degrade  the  symbol  and  empty  it 
of  all  its  significance.  But  none  of  those  bodies  have  given  any 
indications  of  such  a  supernatural  knowledge,  and  cannot,  there- 
fore, were  the  supposition  allowable  that  they  were  on  the  earth, 
be  those  whom  the  symbol  represents. 

Mr.  Cuninghame  supposes  not  only  that  they  were  on  the 
earth,  but  that  they  are  the  representatives  of  the  living  saints 
who  at  Christ's  advent  are  to  be  transfigured  and  caught  up  to 
meet  him  in  the  air.  The  period  hoAvever  during  Avhich  they 
are  to  exist  in  the  state  denoted  by  their  station  on  Mount  Zion, 
he  holds,  is  to  be  that  of  the  great  tribulation  immediately  before 
Christ's  coming.  "  I  conceive,"  he  says,  "  the  sealed  ones  to 
represent  that  portion  of  the  church  of  God,  which  shall,  when 
the  Lord  appears  in  the  aii',  be  caught  up  along  with  the  raised 
saints  to  meet  him  in  the_  air.  They  are  the  same  as  the  five 
Avise  virgins  of  the  parable  who  took  oil  with  their  lamps.  They 
are  represented  to  us,  however,  in  this  vision,  not  as  already 
caught  up,  but  as  having  attained  to  a  meetness  for  their  glori- 
ous change.     They  are  still  in  their  militant  state  and  in  the 


452         THE  HUNDRED  POETY-FOUE  THOUSAIVD 

flesh,  following  the  LambAvlio  is  exhibited  at  their  head."     But 
the  supposition  that  they  were  on  Mount  Ziou  iu  Jerusalem  is 
inconsistent  Avith  the  representation  that  their  song  came  from 
heaven,  and  that  they  sang  it  before  the  throne  and  before  the 
four  living  creatures  and  the  elders,  which  indicates  that  they 
stood  in  front  of  the  heavenly  temple  in  which  the  Almighty  was 
enthroned.     The  supposition  also  that  they  were  yet  in  their 
militant  state,  is  inconsistent  with  an  interpretation  of  the  vision 
as  foreshowing  or  implying  that  they  are  to  be  caught  up  in  the 
air  at  Christ's  coming.     There  not  only  is  no  symbol  in  it  of  such 
an  event ;  but  if  they  were  still  in  the  flesh,  and  involved  in  the 
conflicts  of  the  great  tribiilation,  they  must  be  considered  as  fore- 
showing that  those  whom  they  represent,  are  at  the  period  to 
which  the  vision  refers,  to  be  in  the  flesh  and  iuA'olved  in  the 
conflicts  and  sufferings  of  the  great  tribulation ;  the  conditions 
relations  and  acts  of  symbols,  always  being  representative  of  the 
conditions  relations  and  acts  of  the  agents  whom  they  symbolize. 
The  flight  of  the  angel,  for  example,  through  mid-heaven  and 
proclamation  of  the  gospel,  denotes  the  analogous  movement  of 
those  whom  he  symbolizes,  and  their  proclamation  of  their  mes- 
sage to  the  nations ;   the  power  of  the  wild  beast  over  the  na- 
tions, stands  for  the  power  of  the  civil  rulers  whom  the  beast 
represents,  over  them ;   the  beast's  war  on  the  saints  symbolizes 
the  war  on  them  the  civil  rulers  are  to  wage;  and  the  taking  and 
destruction  of  the  beast  and  his  armies,  signify  the  seizure  and 
destruction  of  the  kings  and  their  armies  whom  they  represent ; 
and  so  of  the  conditions  and  acts  of  the  other  symbols.    If  then 
the  hundred  forty-four  thousand,  as  seen  by  the  apostle,  were  in 
the  natural  life,  and  involved  in  its  conflicts,  the  vision  undoubt- 
edly foreshows  that  that  is  to  be  the  condition  of  those  whom 
they  represent ;   and  thence  that  the  living  saints  are  to  remain 
in  the  flesh  and  in  sin,  and  the  great  tribulation  continue  after 
Christ  comes,  and  for  aught  that  appears  in  the  vision,  through 
his  w^hole  millennial  reign.     But  that  is  in  contradiction  to  the 
representation  that  they  are  pure  and  blameless,  and  that  they 
follow  the  Lamb  wherever  he  goes. 

May  not  the  change,  however,  which  the  hundred  forty-four 
thousand  are  to  experience,  be  simply  a  change  to  immortality, 
and  their  order  as  first-fruits,  be  merely  a  precedence  of  the 
other  living  believers,  who  as  a  harvest,  are  at  a  later  period  to 
be  made  immortal?  Though  there  is  no  direct  proof  that  it  is 
not,  yet  it  is  not  probable.  Their  difference  indicates  that  they 
vary  in  the  nature  of  their  rewards,  not  simply  in  the  time  of 
their  receiving  them.  The  specific  number  of  the  sealed  implies 
that  they  are  representatives  of  a  specific  number,  while  the 


ox   MOUNT   ZION.  453 

palm-bearing  throng  are  themselves  innumerable,  and  symbolize 
innumerable  multitudes.  Does  not  this  indicate  that  the  tAvo 
bodies  are  to  differ  from  each  other  in  something  more  tlian  the 
mere  period  of  their  deliverance  from  liability  to  death  ? 

The  characteristics  also,  of  the  two  classes  seem  to  form  a 
ground  for  a  different  reward,  and  their  relations  to  Chi-ist  and 
the  services  assigned  them  seem  to  differ  in  their  nature.  The 
first  characteristic  of  the  sealed  is,  that  they  lived  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  beast,  and  uttered  a  testimony  against  him 
and  the  false  church.  They  accordingly  represent  only  those 
who  are  of  that  class.  The  palm-bearing  multitude,  on  the  con- 
trary, are  of  all  nations  and  peoples  and  kindreds  and  tongues, 
and  include  therefore,  great  numbers  who  had  no  relations  what 
ever  to  the  beast.,  or  the  false  church.  The  next  characteristic 
of  the  sealed  is  that  they  have  the  name  of  God  on  their  fore- 
heads, that  they  have  never  been  stained  with  the  sin  of  submis- 
sion to  the  apostate  church,  and  that  their  profession  of  subjec- 
tion to  God  had  never  been  falsified  by  a  virtual  homage  to 
creatures.  But  the  second  characteristic  of  the  palm-bearers  is 
that  though  they  have  been  stained  with  sins,  they  have  Avashed 
their  robes  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb. 
May  not  this  be  an  adequate  reason  for  assigning  them  different 
rewards  ?  A  third  peculiarity  of  the  sealed  is  their  relation  to 
Christ.  They  stand  with  him  on  Mount  Zion,  the  place  where 
he  is  to  reign,  implying  the  most  intimate  relations  to  him ;  and 
they  follow  him  wherever  he  goes.  They  are  to  be  his  attendants 
when  he  visits  other  parts  of  the  earth,  or  other  worlds  in  his 
vast  empire ;  which  imi^lies  a  glorified  nature  that  fits  them  like 
the  risen  saints  to  soar  into  the  heights  of  the  air  to  meet  him, 
and  fly  with  the  rapidity  of  light  wherever  in  the  sw^ay  of  his 
boundless  kingdom  he  may  require  their  service.  The  palm- 
bearing  multitude  on  the  other  hand,  are  to  serve  God  day  and 
night  in  his  temple,  which  implies  that  they  are  to  be  stationary. 
There  seem  ample  reasons  then,  for  the  belief  that  the  reward 
with  which  the  sealed  are  to  be  signalized  is  to  be  of  a  higher 
nature  than  the  mere  exemption  like  that  of  tlie  i)alm-bearers, 
from  mortality ;  and  therefore  that  their  change  is  to  be  a  trans- 
figuration to  glory. 

That  some  of  the  living  are  to  be  transfigured  to  glory  with- 
out first  being  changed  to  immortal,  seems  indicated  by  the 
transfiguration  of  Enoch  and  Elijah.  For  that  Elijah  was  changed 
to  glory,  is  seen  from  his  appearing  in  glory  at  Christ's  transfig- 
uration. That  those  changed  to  immortal  are  also  afterwards  to 
be  glorified,  is  shown  by  the  promise  that  Christ  shall  change 


454  THE   ANGEL   HATING  THE  EVERLASTING   GOSPEL. 

our  vile  body  that  it  may  be  fashioned  like  unto  his  glorious 
body. 

As  the  representation  that  the  144,000  had  not  been  guilty 
of  impurity,  indicates  that  they  are  to  consist  of  those  who  have 
never  sanctioned  the  civil  rulers  nor  apostate  hierarchies  in  their 
usurpations,  they  are  probably  to  arise  after  the  questions  excited 
by  the  sealing  angel  have  begun  to  be  discussed,  and  the  people 
of  God  are  furnished  with  the  means  of  understanding  the  false- 
hood and  impiety  of  the  grounds  on  which  the  antichristian 
powers  proceed  in  their  claims. 


•       SECTION  XXXIV. 
CHAPTER    XIV.    6-7. 
THE  ANGEL  HAVING  THE  EVERLASTING  GOSPEL. 

And  I  saw  another  angel  flying  in  mid-heaven,  having  the  ever 
lasting  gospel  to  proclaim  to  those  who  dwell  on  the  earth,  and  to 
every  nation,  and  tribe,  and  tongue,  and  people,  saying  with  a  loud 
.voice,  Fear  ye  God,  and  give  him  glory,  for  the  hour  of  his  judg- 
ment is  come ;  and  worship  ye  him  who  made  the  heaven,  and  the 
earth,  and  sea,  and  fountains  of  waters. 

The  gospel  is  everlasting,  as  it  is  the  gospel  unchanged  which 
Christ  and  the  apostles  preached,  and  which  is  to  remain  un- 
changed, and  be  preached  to  successive  generations  through 
eternal  years, — not  the  new  and  antichristian  gospel  invented 
and  proclaimed  by  the  false  prophet ;  as  it  relates  to  the  ever- 
lasting government  of  God,  and  reveals  the  principles  on  which 
it  is  forever  to  be  conducted  ;  and  as  it  proffers  everlasting  life 
to  men.  The  angel,  like  others,  is  the  representative  of  a  body 
and  succession  of  men.  His  flight  in  mid-heaven,  denotes  the 
conspicuity  of  their  mission.  Those  who  dwell  on  the  earth, 
are  the  inhabitants  of  the  ten  kingdoms,  as  distinguished  from 
whom  every  nation,  and  tribe,  and  tongue,  and  people,  are  the 
other  nations  of  the  world.  His  first  summons  is  to  fear  God, 
and  give  him  glory.  To  fear  him,  is  to  regard  him  with  the  su- 
preme awe  that  is  due  to  his  infinite  greatness  and  station.  To 
give  him  glory,  is  to  manifest  that  awe  by  a  public  acknowledg- 


THE  ANGEL  HAVING  THE  EVERLASTING  GOSPEL.  455 

ment  and  celebration  of  his  being,  perfections,  and  works,  as 
creator  and  ruler,  a  recognition  of  his  rights,  and  submission  to 
his  will.  The  reason  offered  for  that  summons  is,  that  the  hour 
of  his  judgment  is  come  ;  the  period  in  which  he  is  to  reclaim 
the  rights  which  men  have  usurped,  vindicate  the  prerogatives 
they  have  denied,  and  punish  both  those  who  arrogate  his 
throne,  and  those  who  pay  them  the  homage  that  is  due  only  to 
him.  His  next  injunction  is,  to  worship  Him  who  made  the 
heaven,  and  the  earth,  and  sea,  and  fountains  of  waters.  The 
heaven,  earth,  and  sea,  when  thus  distinguished  from  each  other, 
denote  the  world  of  men,  in  their  relations  as  rulers  and  sub- 
jects :  the  sun  symbolizing  the  rulers  of  a  nation,  or  community 
of  nations  ;  the  earth,  a  people  under  a  settled  form  of  govern- 
ment ;  a  sea,  the  multitude  of  a  great  nation  in  the  commotions 
of  war,  or  a  revolution  ;  and  fountains,  remoter  tribes  and 
communities  intimately  related  to  a  great  central  people.  The 
command  implies  therefore  that  the  nations  of  the  earth  are 
worshipping  their  rulers,  or  making  their  customs  under  a  set- 
tled constitution  the  law  of  conscience,  or  giving  that  honor  to 
the  usages  and  opinions  of  other  communities,  or  yielding  it  to 
the  principles  and  passions  of  an  excited  and  lawless  multitude ; 
and  is  a  summons  to  withdraw  their  homage  from  creatures,  and 
yield  it  only  to  the  creator. 

This  symbol  then  represents  a  body  and  succession  of  men, 
who  are  to  bear  the  everlasting  gospel  both  to  the  nations  of  the 
ten  kingdoms,  and  to  all  other  tribes  and  languages  of  the  earth, 
and  to  summon  them  to  fear  God  and  glorify  him  by  a  just  ac- 
knowledgment and  homage ;  to  warn  them  that  the  hour  of  his  judg- 
ment is  come,  in  which  he  is  to  punish  those  who  usurp  his  throne 
and  arrogate  his  rights  ;  and  enjoin  them  to  worship,  not  rulers  or 
subjects,  but  him  only,  their  creator.  This  office  has,  it  may  be 
thought,  already  been  filled  in  part  by  those  who,  during  the 
last  half  century,  have  employed  themselves  in  presenting  the 
word  of  God  translated  into  their  several  languages,  to  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  and  in  proclaiming  its  glad  tidings  of  sal- 
vation ;  as  that  great  movement  commenced  cotemporaneously 
with  the  commencement  of  the  judgment  by  the  efiusion  of  the 
first  vial.  The  warning,  however,  that  the  hour  of  the  judgment 
of  usurping  rulers  and  apostate  priests  is  come,  has  not  yet 
been  uttered,  nor  but  partially  the  summons  to  worship  the 
creator,  not  creatures,  whatever  may  be  their  station,  their  pre- 
tensions, or  their  number.  The  great  obstacles  which  the  her- 
alds of  the  gospel  have  everywhere,  within  and  without  the  ten 


456  THE  FALL  OF  BABYLON. 

kingdoms,  to  encounter,  are  notoriously  those  which  this  sum- 
mons implies ; — the  authority  of  antichristian  rulers,  apostate 
priests,  established  constitutions,  hereditary  opinions,  prejudices, 
and  passions  ;  and  the  first  step  towards  the  conversion  of  the 
nations  to  God,  is  their  extrication  from  an  abject  vassalage  to 
man.  Such  is  eminently  the  condition,  not  only  of  the  numerous 
millions  of  India,  Hindostan,  Burmah,  and  China,  of  all  Mahom- 
etan and  Catholic  nations,  of  the  Greek,  the  Armenian,  and  the 
Syrian  communions,  but  of  the  Protestant  established  churches 
also. 

Mr.  Daubuz  refers  this  symbol  to  the  age  of  Constantine  ; 
Mr.  Mede,  chiefly  to  the  contest  in  respect  to  images  in  the 
eighth  and  ninth  centuries  ;  Mr.  Brightman,  to  the  fourteenth 
century  ;  and  Mr.  Whiston,  Vitringa,  and  Dean  Woodhouse,  to 
the  sixteenth  :  but  the  events  of  those  periods  answer  to  it  but 
in  a  very  inadequate  degree.  The  gospel  was  not  then  conveyed 
to  every' nation,  and  tribe,  and  tongue,  and  people,  nor  had  the 
hour  come  of  God's  judgment  on  the  wild  beast  and  false  prophet. 

Mr.  Cuninghame,  Mr.  Elliott,  and  the  late  English  expositors 
generally,  refer  it  to  the  translation  and  distribution  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  evangelical  missions  of  the  present  century.  But  it 
is  obviously  to  embrace  not  only  the  gift  of  the  Scriptures  to 
all  tribes,  and  languages,  and  peoples,  but  a  warning  also  that 
the  hour  of  judgment  on  the  antichristian  powers  has  come,  and 
a  summons  of  all  nations.  Christian  as  well  as  heathen,  to  aban- 
don the  homage  of  creatures,  virtual  as  well  as  open,  ascribe 
the  attributes,  the  prerogatives,  and  the  honors  of  the  deity  to 
God  only,  and  pay  him  alone  their  worship. 


SECTION  XXXV. 

CHAPTER    XIV.    8. 

THE     FALL     OF     BABYLON. 


And  another,  a  second  ang^el  followed,  saying,  She  has  fallen, 
great  Babylon  has  fallen,  which  made  the  nations  drink  of  the  in- 
furiating wine  of  her  fornication. 

Great    Babylon    is   the    aggregate  of  the  nationalized  hier- 
archies of  the  ten  kingdoms,  whatever  be  their  names ;  as  is 


THE  FALL  OF  BABYLON.  457 

shown  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  chapters.  She  sym- 
boHzes  the  teachers  and  rulers  of  the  churches,  with  whom  the 
kings  of  the  earth  join  in  the  institution,  practice,  and  dissemi- 
nation of  a  false  religion  ;  uniting  with  her  in  the  usurpation 
of  the  rights  of  God  as  lawgiver,  upholding  her  in  her  pretence 
to  his  autiiority  for  her  impious  assumptions,  offering  the  wor- 
ship she  enjoins  and  because  of  her  appointing  it,  and  imposing 
and  enforcing  it  on  their  subjects.  Her  difference  accordingly 
from  the  image  to  the  wild  beast  is,  that  she  embraces  the  Pro- 
testant hierarchies  of  the  ten  kingdoms,  if  there  be  any,  as  well 
as  the  Catholic,  which  constitute  that  image : — the  vast  structure 
of  nationalized  ecclesiastical  rulers  and  teachers,  who  usurp  the 
rights  of  God,  whatever  may  be  their  divisions  or  names,  hold  a 
faith  essentially  false,  offer  an  unauthorized  worship,  and  act 
with  the  antichristian  civil  powers  in  their  usurpations  and  perse- 
cutions. The  image  to  the  wild  beast,  on  the  other  hand,  de- 
notes only  the  array  of  Catholic  rulers  and  teachers  within  and 
without  the  papal  territories,  which  the  princes  and  people  erect- 
ed into  one  vast  hierarchy  with  the  pope  as  its  head,  and  invested 
with  a  sway  over  the  church,  analogous  to  that  which  the  civil 
rulers  exert  over  their  political  empire.  The  fall  of  the  city  is 
accordingly  her  dejection  from  that  station  as  a  legal  establish- 
ment, the  creature  and  organ  of  the  civil  governments,  deriving 
her  revenues  from  their  treasuries,  and  supporting  her  usurped 
dominion  by  their  power.  This  is  apparent  from  her  continued 
existence  after  her  fall  has  taken  place,  as  is  shown  by  the  sum- 
mons of  the  people  of  God,  by  the  angel  in  the  eighteenth  chap- 
ter, to  come  out  of  her,  after  having  announced  that  she  had 
fallen.  As  she  is  to  subsist  after  her  dejection,  her  fall  cannot 
be  her  dissolution  as  a  community  ;  nor  can  it  be  the  dissolution 
of  her  government  or  hierarchy,  inasmuch  as  the  image  also  is 
to  continue  to  subsist  after  her  fall,  as  is  seen  from  the  command 
not  to  worship  the  image,  which  is  uttered  by  the  tliird  angel 
immediately  after  the  annunciation  of  her  fall.  Her  fall  is  there- 
fore her  severance  from  the  civil  governments,  and  dejection 
from  her  station  and  power  as  a  combination  of  national  estab- 
lishments. The  angel  here  simply  announces  her  fall.  In  the 
eighteenth  chapter,  he  adds  the  reasons  of  her  dejection,  and  the 
character  of  her  subsequent  vassals. 

This  symbol  then  foreshows  that  the  usurping  hierarchies  de- 
noted by  great  Babylon,  are  to  be  thrown  down  from  their  sta- 
tions as  national  establishments.  As  the  angel  announcing  her 
fall,  follows  the  angel  bearing  the  everlasting  gospel,  her  fall  is 

58 


458  THE   FALL    OF    BABYLON. 

to  take  place  not  only  after  those  repi-esented  by  the  latter  have 
begun  their  work,  but  possibly  after  they  have  largely  fulfilled 
it.  This  angel,  like  that,  is  the  representative  of  a  body  of  men  ; 
his  flight  in  mid-heaven  denotes  their  publicity  and  conspicuity  ; 
and  his  annunciation,  that  there  is  to  be  a  public  and  exulting 
celebration  of  her  overthrow. 

Grotius,  Bellarmine,  Dr.  Hammond,  Rosenmuller,  and  Mr. 
Daubuz,  regard  great  Babylon  as  pagan  Rome.  But  that  is 
to  assume  tlaat  the  symbol  is  of  the  same  species  as  the  thing 
symbolized,  which  is  against  analogy.  Ancient  Babylon  is  a 
symbol,  not  of  a  literal  city,  but  of  an  apostate  and  idolatrous 
hierarchy. 

Mr.  Brightman,  Mr.  Mede,  and  Bishop  Newton,  exhibit  the 
Romish  church  as  great  Babylon,  and  the  denunciation  of 
her  idolatries  by  the  Albigenses,  Waldenses,  Wicklifites,  and 
others  of  that  period,  as  the  annunciation  of  her  fall.  But  that 
was  a  proclamation  of  her  apostasy  to  idol-worship  simply,  not 
of  her  dejection  from  her  station  as  a  nationalized  hierarchy. 
She  did  not  then  fall  from  her  civil  establishment  by  the  nations, 
nor  had  those  symbolized  by  the  angel  bearing  the  everlasting 
gospel,  then  fulfilled  their  office. 

Cocceius  and  Vilringa  interpret  her  fall  of  the  secession  of  the 
Protestant  nations  from  the  Catholic  communion  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  establishment  of  the  Reformed  churches  in  her 
place.  But,  on  the  one  hand,  there  was  no  total  severance  at 
that  period  of  the  Catholic  hierarchies  from  the  civil  govern- 
ments ;  and  on  the  other,  the  Protestant  churches,  so  far  from 
going  out  of  great  Babylon,  continued  in  her  community  by 
still  acting  on  her  principles,  arrogating  the  same  dominion  over 
the  Jaws  of  God,  and  uniting  in  the  same  manner  with  the  civil 
powers  in  imposing  their  creeds  and  rites  on  others,  and  perse- 
cuting dissentients.  That  assumption  of  the  prerogatives  of 
God  is  the  great  and  fundamental  crime  of  the  antichristian 
church,  from  which  her  other  unauthorized  arrogations  and  her 
idolatrous  worship  spring.  It  is  because  of  that,  that  she  pre- 
tends that  her  agency  is  essential  to  salvation  ;  that  she  denies 
the  legitimacy  of  any  other  rites,  and  the  acceptableness  to  God 
of  any  other  worship  than  hers  ;  and  that  she  claims  submission 
to  her  authority  as  an  act  of  allegiance  to  him.  It  is  because  of 
that,  that  she  perverts  the  ordinances  of  the  gospel,  institutes  a 
superstitious  worship,  and  enjoins  the  homage  of  idols.  The 
Protestant  nationalized  churches,  therefore,  great  as  was  the 
sum  of  her  false  doctrines  which  they  rejected,  inasmuch  as  they 


THE   THIRD    ANGEL.  459 

thus  imitated  her  in  an  arrogation  of  the  throne  of  God,  and  ele- 
vation of  their  authority  above  his  rights  and  will,  still  continued 
to  belong  to  great  Babylon,  and  if  they  subsist  to  that  time,  are 
to  share  in  her  fall. 


SECTION   XXXVI. 
CHAPTER   XIV.   9-13. 


THE  THIRD  ANGEL  DENOUNCING  WRATH  ON  THE  WORSHIPPERS    OF 
THE  WILD  BEAST  AND  ITS  IMAGE. 

And  another,  a  third  angel  followed  them,  saying  with  a  loud  voice, 
If  anyone  worship  the  wild  beast,  and  its  image,  and  receive  a  mark 
on  his  forehead,  or  on  his  hand,  he  shall  even  drink  of  the  wine  of 
the  wrath  of  God  poured  an  unmixed  wine  into  the  cup  of  his  indig- 
nation, and  shall  be  tormented  in  fire  and  brimstone  before  tlie  holy 
angels,  and  before  the  Lamb.  And  the  smoke  of  their  torment  as- 
cends forever  and  ever.  And  they  have  no  rest  day  and  night  who 
worship  the  wild  beast  and  its  image,  and  whoever  receives  the  mark 
of  its  name.  Here  is  the  patience  of  the  saints,  who  keep  the  com- 
mandments of  God  and  the  faith  of  Jesus.  And  I  heard  a  voice 
from  heaven  saying,  Write,  Blessed  are  the  dead  who  hereafter  die 
in  the  Lord  ;  yea,  saith  the  Spirit,  that  they  may  rest  from  their  toils, 
and  their  works  follow  with  them. 

As  this  angel  follows  the  others,  the  agents  whom  he  repre- 
sents are  to  be  of  a  later  period  than  those  whom  they  symbol- 
ize. His  warning  implies,  that  notwithstanding  great  Babylon 
has  fallen  from  her  station  as  a  national  establishment,  men 
are  still  worshipping  the  wild  beast  and  its  image,  and  receiving- 
its  mark  ;  and  that  the  wild  beast  therefore  and  the  Catholic  hi- 
erarchies of  the  fallen  city  denoted  by  the  image,  still  continue 
their  usurpation  of  the  rights  of  God,  and  domineer  over  the 
church,  although  no  longer  in  the  same  relations  to  eacli  other. 
Those  Romish  hierarchies  are  still  to  subsist  therefore  after  their 
fall,  and  acknowledge  the  pope  as  their  head. 

The  tremendous  punishment  threatened  to  whoever  continues 
to  worship  those  antichristian  powers,  and  unite  in  their  idola- 
tries, implies  that  their  assumptions  are  a  virtual  usurpation  of 
the  throne  of  God,  and  arrogation  of  his  essential  prerogatives, 
and  that  whoever  accordingly  submits  to  their  claims,  and  ren 


460  THE  THIRD  ANGEL. 

ders  them  the  allegiance  they  exact,  exalts  them  to  the  station 
of  the  Almighty,  yields  them  the  homage  that  is  due  only  to  him, 
and  must  necessarily  thence  be  treated  as  a  deliberate  and  in- 
corrigible apostate.  It  indicates  therefore  that  at  that  period, 
the  principles  on  which  those  arrogations  and  that  worship  pro- 
ceed, are  to  be  so  fully  discussed  and  developed,  that  all  shall  be 
able  to  discern  and  appreciate  their  relations  to  the  rights  of  God 
and  the  obligations  of  creatures. 

The  representation  that  at  that  crisis  the  saints  who  keep  the 
commandments  of  God  and  the  faith  of  Jesus,  are  to  display  their 
patience  ;  and  that  the^'^  who  thereafter  die  in  the  Lord  are  bless- 
ed, because  of  the  release  they  are  to  obtain  from  their  toils,  and 
the  rewards  to  which  they  are  to  be  exalted  ;  foreshows  that  the 
antichristian  powers  are  to  carry  their  endeavors  to  domineer  over 
believers,  and  force  them  to  apostatize,  to  the  extreme  of  a  bloody 
persecution  ;  as  the  saints  are  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  exhibited 
as  displaying  their  patience  in  enduring  the  war  made  on  them 
by  the  wild  beast.  To  die  in  the  Lord,  is  to  die  for  his  sak©  as 
a  witness  to  his  truth  ;  as  to  be  a  prisoner  in  the  Lord,  is  to  be 
a  prisoner  as  his  minister.  That  their  works  are  to  follow  with 
them,  denotes  doubtless  that  they  are  immediately  to  be  raised 
from  death,  and  as  kings  and  priests  in  Christ's  kingdom  on 
earth,  to  resume  their  work  towards  the  nations,  and  exert  an 
important  instrumentality  in  converting  them  to  the  homage  of 
God. 

This  persecution  is  obviously  to  be  of  a  later  period  than  that 
in  which  the  witnesses  are  to  be  slain  ;  as  this  is  to  follow 
the  fall  of  great  Babylon,  and  take  place  at  the  summons  and 
final  withdrawment  of  the  people  of  God  from  connection  with 
the  apostate  hierarchies;  but  that  is  to  precede  her  fall,  as  the  re- 
surrection of  the  witnesses  is  to  be  the  occasion  of  the  earthquake 
by  which  Avith  a  kingdom  a  tenth  of  her  is  to  be  overthrown. 

This  symbol,  then,  foreshows,  that  after  great  Babylon 
has  fallen  from  her  station  as  a  combination  of  nationalized  hi- 
erarchies, numerous  teachers  are  to  arise,  wiio,  publicly  and 
strenuously  asserting  the  exclusive  right  of  God  to  enjoin  the 
faith  and  institute  the  worship  of  the  church,  and  pointing  out  the 
error  and  impiousness  of  the  principles  on  whicii  civil  and  ec- 
clesiastical rulers  proceed,  who  usurp  dominion  over  iiis  law,  and 
demand  supreme  homage  to  their  authority,  shall  denounce  his 
avenging  judgments  on  all  who  thereafter  yield  submission  to 
those  antichristian  powers  ;  and  that  the  wild  beast  will  obstruct 
them  and  endeavor  by  persecution  to  compel  them  to  apostatize, 


THE  THIRD  ANGEL.  461 

and  put  them  to  death  ;  but  that  they  will  sustain  tlie  conflict 
with  a  patience  and  fidelity  worthy  of  prophets,  and  receive  for 
their  steadfastness,  a  speedy  resurrection  and  elevation  to  the 
station  of  kings  and  priests,  and  participation  in  the  momentous 
agencies  on  which  the  glorified  saints  are  immediately  thereafter 
to  enter  with  Christ  at  the  establishment  of  his  kingdom  on  the 
earth. 

The  great  principles  on  which  the  pure  and  the  apostate 
church  proceed,  are  thus  immediately  before  the  advent  of  the 
Redeemer,  to  be  brought  into  the  most  open  and  violent  antago- 
nism ;  the  worshippers  of  God  are  to  give  the  most  public  and 
perfect  demonstration  of  the  truth  and  inflexibleness  of  their  al- 
legiance, by  resigning  their  lives,  rather  than  apostatize  ;  and 
the  antichristian  powers  and  their  vassals  are  to  give  the  most 
resistless  proof  of  their  deliberate  and  incorrigible  apostasy,  by 
continuing  their  rebellion  amidst  the  threatenings  of  avenging 
judgments  ;  and  thus  demonstrate  the  propriety  of  the  discrim- 
ination the  Son  of  God  is  immediately  to  make  between  them, 
in  raising  his  slaughtered  people  from  death  and  exalting  them 
to  the  rewards  of  his  kingdom,  and  in  condemning  the  apostates 
and  consigning  them  to  everlasting  punishm-ent. 

Mr.  Daubuz  regarded  this  angel  as  symbolizing  the  witnesses 
who  testify  against  the  corruptions  of  the  church,  through  the 
whole  period  of  ihe  wild  beast  and  false  prophet ;  and  the  judg- 
ments that  are  threatened  to  the  worshippers  of  the  wild  beast 
and  its  image,  as  the  temporal  calamities  with  which,  during  the 
same  period,  the  antichristian  nations  were  to  be  scourged.  But  the 
gospel  had  not  at  the  commencement  of  the  twelve  hundred  and 
sixty  years,  been  preached  to  every  nation,  nor  had  great  Babylon 
fallen.  The  period  is  therefore  wrong.  Nor  are  eternal  pun- 
ishments ever  made  the  symbols  of  temporal.  It  were  against 
analogy.  The  punishments  therefore  threatened  to  the  worship- 
pers of  the  wild  beast,  are  not  calamities  of  this  life. 

Mr.  Brightman  and  Bishop  Newton  regarded  this  angel  as  a 
representative  of  Luther  and  his  associate  Reformers.  But  Bab- 
ylon had  not  then  fallen,  nor  had  the  gospel  been  made  known 
to  all  nations,  nor  has  either  of  them  yet  taken  place.  Nothing 
is  clearer  than  that  the  period  denoted  by  the  vision  is  yet  future. 
Mr.  Daubuz,  Bishop  Newton,  and  others,  are  perplexed,  on 
their  views  of  the  symbol,  to  determine  the  nature  or  reason  of 
the  blessedness  promised  to  those  who  thereafter  die  in  the 
Lord.  But  that  promise  is  raised  to  a  significance  worthy  of 
an  express  annunciation  from  heaven,  when  it  is  seen  that  those 


462  THE  ANGEL  LIKE  THE  SON   OF  MAN. 

to  whom  it  is  addressed  are  the  martyrs  who  are  to  be  slain  in 
the  last  war  of  antichrist,  and  immediately  to  be  raised,  from 
death,  and  exalted,  because  of  their  fidelity,  to  eminent  stations 
in  the  everlasting  kingdom  of  Christ. 


SECTION  XXXVII. 

CHAPTER    XIV.    14-16. 
THE    ANGEL    LIKE    THE    SON    OF    MAN. 

And  I  looked,  and  behold  a  white  cloud ;  and  on  the  cloud  one 
sat  like  a  son  of  man,  having  on  his  head  a  golden  crown,  and  in  his 
hand  a  sharp  sickle.  And  another  angel  came  out  of  the  temple  crying 
with  a  loud  voice  to  him  who  sat  on  the  cloud,  Thrust  thy  sickle  and 
reap,  for  the  hour  to  reap  has  come,  for  the  harvest  of  the  earth  is  ripe. 
And  he  who  sat  on  the  cloud  tiirust  his  sickle  on  the  earth,  and  the 
earth  was  reaped. 

He  who  sat  on  the  cloud,  like  the  other  principal  agents  in  the 
visions,  except  the  Son  of  God,  is  a  symbol  of  a  class  and  mul- 
titude. He  is  like  a  son  of  man.  lie  represents  human  be- 
ings therefore  inaisputably,  and  human  beings  doubtless  raised 
from  the  dead  in  glory,  like  the  human  form  of  Christ  in  his  ex- 
altation. He  obviously  is  not  the  representative  of  angels.  The 
likeness  which  he  bore  was  given  him  undoubtedly,  and  men- 
tioned by  the  apostle  to  denote  the  species  of  beings  whom  he 
symbolizes.  There  is,  indeed,  no  such  analogy  between  men 
generally  and  angels,  as  to  render  the  former  a  fit  symbol  of  the 
latter,  were  there  any  occasion  for  their  symbolization.  They 
are  not  of  sufficient  strength  and  dignity,  are  imperfect  in  knowl- 
edge, and  are  sinful.  Angels,  on  the  other  hand,  are  employed 
to  symbolize,  not  men  generally,  but  those  who  are  exalted  to 
stations  of  extraordinary  power,  and  exert  vast  influences ;  and 
there  is  an  obvious  propriety  in  that  symbolization  ;  as  there 
is  an  analogy  between  that  higher  order  of  beings  and  men 
who  are  raised  to  a  great  elevation  above  the  race  generally,  in 
office  and  agency.  When  angels  are  exhibited  as  exerting  an 
agency  in  the  events  symbohzed  on  the  earth,  they  appear  in 
their  own  persons,  as  in  the  next  vision,  and  in  the  binding  of 
Satan  in  the  twentieth  chapter.     And  finally,  the  symbolization 


THE   ANGEL  LIKE  THE  SON   OF   MAN.  463 

of  tlie  saints  raised  from  death  in  glory  by  one  like  a  son  of 
man  in  a  glorified  body,  was  requisite  to  avoid  the  violation  of 
analogy.  Any  other  representation  would  naturally  have  implied, 
that  the  beings  symbolized  were  either  of  a  difierent  order,  or 
human  beings  unglorified  and  mortal.  If  the  phrase,  hke  a  son 
of  man,  be  translated  like  the  Son  of  Man,  it  still  supports  the 
same  conclusion.  What  reason  can  be  conceived  for  the  sym- 
bolic agent's  being  endowed  with  that  likeness,  except  that  he  is 
the  representative  of  human  beings  ;  or  for  his  being  said  to  be 
like  one  of  the  human  race,  not  a  mortal  man,  except  that  he  is 
a  representative  of  human  beings  changed  from  their  mortal  and 
unglorified  life,  to  a  superior  form  ?  As  he  is  the  representative, 
then,  of  human  beings  raised  from  death,  in  a  beauty  and  splen- 
dor of  form  like  that  of  the  glorified  body  of  the  Redeemer,  the 
golden  crown  on  his  head  denotes  that  they  had  already  been 
presented  to  the  Father,  adopted  as  sons  and  joint-heirs  with 
Christ,  and  assigned  to  stations  as  kings  and  priests  in  his  king- 
dom. The  period  of  this  agency  is  after  the  revivification  of  the 
witnesses  therefore,  and  doubtless  also  from  the  vast  numbers 
requisite  to  such  an  office,  after  the  visible  advent  of  Christ  and 
resurrection  of  the  holy  dead  of  all  ages. 

They  who  are  harvested  by  him  are  also  human  beings  on  the 
earth,  and  living  therefore  and  mortal,  and  are  doubtless  the 
saints.  In  their  symbolization  by  inanimate  objects,  they  are 
exhibited  as  passive  subjects  of  the  event  foreshown,  not  its 
efficient  agents.  As  crops  are  harvested  for  the  purpose  of  pre- 
servation and  appropriation  to  the  uses  for  which  they  are  raised  ; 
so  the  reaping  of  the  subjects  of  this  harvest  denotes  their  being 
gathered  for  preservation,  and  appropriation  to  the  ends  for  which 
they  are  sanctified. 

That  an  angel  came  forth  from  the  temple,  and  apprized  the 
reaper  when  to  thrust  his  sickle,  denotes  that  a  messenger  from 
heaven  is  to  announce  to  those  whom  he  symbolizes  the  moment 
when  they  are  to  enter  on  their  work ;  and  is  in  accordance  with 
the  representation  of  Christ,  that  it  is  with  the  voice  of  a  great 
trumpet  that  he  is  to  send  his  angels  to  gather  together  his  elect. 

This  beautiful  symbol  thus  foreshows  that  ere  the  final  destruc- 
tion of  the  vassals  of  antichrist,  the  living  saints  are  to  be  gath 
ered  together  for  preservation,  and  probably  for  the  judgment  and 
acceptance  which  are  symbolized  by  the  parable  of  the  separa- 
tion of  the  sheep  from  the  goats  ;  that  that  event  is  to  lake  place 
certainly  after  the  witnesses,  and  doubtless  after  the  holy  dead 
universally  have  been  raised,  accepted,  and  invested  with  crowns  ; 


464  THE  ANGEL  LIKE  THE  SON  OF  MAN. 

that  they  are  to  be  the  angels  who  are  to  gather  together  the 
elect,  and  that  they  are  previously  to  descend  to  the  clouds, 
await  the  approach  of  the  great  moment,  and  receive  a  signal 
from  heaven  when  to  enter  on  their  work. 

Mr.  Mede,  Mr.  Lowman,  Mr.  Cuninghame,  and  Mr.  Elliott, 
exhibit  the  form  seated  on  the  cloud  as  the  Son  of  God.  But 
that  is  forbidden  by  the  manner  in  which  he  is  designated.  It 
was  natural  anterior  to  the  incarnation  of  the  eternal  Word,  in 
representing  him  as  in  the  vision  of  Daniel,  vii.  13,  as  invested 
after  his  incarnation  and  exaltation  with  the  dominion  of  the  earth, 
to  describe  him  as  like  a  son  of  man,  or  one  of  the  human  race. 
That  delineation,  and  his  investiture  with  the  empire  of  the  earth, 
define  him  as  the  incarnate  and  glorified  Word.  But  after  his 
incarnation,  resurrection  in  glory,  and  exaltation  to  the  throne, 
to  represent  him  as  like  the  Son  of  Man,  were  but  to  resemble 
him  to  himself.  The  comparison  would  add  nothing  to  our  pre- 
vious knowledge.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  Saviour  as  glori- 
fied be  virtually  the  being  to  whom  the  symbolic  agent  is  resem- 
bled, then  the  comparison  is  natural,  and  conveys  the  most  im- 
portant information,  as  it  denotes  that  that  agent  is  a  saint  raised 
from  death,  in  a  splendor  of  form  and  aspect  like  that  of  the 
glorified  Redeemer.  In  all  the  instances  moreover  in  which  the 
Son  of  God  appears  in  the  visions,  he  is  designated  by  titles  and 
characteristics  that  distinguish  him  from  all  other  beings,  and 
show  indisputably  that  he  is  the  incarnate  Word.  And  finally, 
it  is  inconsistent  with  his  dignity  and  supremacy,  to  suppose  him 
to  be  notified  by  an  angel  when  to  harvest  the  earth.  Angels 
are  his  ministers,  not  his  directors. 

Vitringa  and  some  others  regard  the  reaping  as  symbolizing  a 
punishment  and  destruction  of  men  by  judgments.  But  that  is 
to  interpret  the  term  by  its  metaphorical  use  in  other  passages 
of  Scripture,  and  to  violate  the  law  which  requires  a  hmitation 
of  the  import  ascribed  to  symbols,  to  that  which  properly  belongs 
to  them  and  the  terms  with  which  they  are  associated,  mdepend- 
ently  of  their  use  in  other  passages.  There  is  nothing  in  a  har- 
vest or  vintage,  which  necessarily  implies,  that  when  used  as 
symbols,  those  who  are  the  subjects  of  them  are  to  be  destroyed. 
They  are  not  necessarily  processes  of  destruction,  nor  in  order 
to  the  destruction  of  what  would  otherwise  continue  to  subsist 
unchanged  ;  but  rather  of  collection  and  preservation,  in  order  to 
appropriation  to  some  subsequent  use.  Whether,  therefore,  they 
are  used  as  symbols  of  a  gathering  for  destruction  or  not,  is  to  be 
determined,  not  by  themselves,  but  by  adventitious  terms,  and 


THE  ANGEL  LIKE  THE  SON  OF  MAN.  465 

representations  connected  with  them.  Thus  the  vintage  is  shown 
to  be  in  order  to  destruction,  by  the  representation  that  the  clus- 
ters are  thrown  into  the  great  wine-press  of  God's  wrath.  But 
as  no  such  representation  is  made  in  respect  to  the  harvest,  there 
is  no  ground  in  the  symbol  itself  for  the  ascription  to  it  of  such  a 
meaning.  Instead,  that  omission  implies  that  the  end  for  which 
the  subjects  of  the  harvest  are  gathered,  is  different  from  that  for 
which  those  who  are  symbolized  by  the  grapes  are  reaped  ;  and 
that  they  are  saints  therefore  ;  and  this  is  corroborated  by  Christ's 
representation  that  he  is  to  send  forth  his  messengers  to  gather 
together  his  elect  from  the  four  winds,  from  the  one  end  of 
heaven  to  the  other ;  and  by  the  parable  of  the  judgment  in 
which  he  exhibits  the  sheep  as  separated  from  the  goats. 

Mr.  Daubuz  regarded  the  harvest  as  symbohzing  the  Reforma- 
tion ;  the  being  seated  on  the  cloud  as  representing  Luther ;  and 
the  angel  who  addressed  him  as  denoting  the  princes  by  whom 
he  was  aided.  But  that  is  wholly  to  misrepresent  the  Reforma- 
tion and  the  agency  of  its  authors.  Luther  was  a  sower  of  the 
seed,  not  a  reaper  of  the  harvest.  The  supposition  that  the  form 
throned  on  the  cloud  symbolizes  him,  is  inconsistent  with  the  re- 
presentation that  he  was  like  one  of  the  human  race  ;  as  that 
comparison  implies  that  he  differed  in  some  important  respect 
from  man  as  he  exists  on  earth.  The  princes  who  aided  Luther 
by  their  swords,  and  the  usurpation  of  dominion  over  the  faith 
and  worship  of  their  subjects,  were  of  the  body  symbolized  by 
the  ten-horned  wild  beast,  not  an  angel  coming  out  of  the  temple 
of  God  in  heaven.  The  harvest  and  vintage  are  founded  on  the 
mature  and  fixed  character  of  their  subjects,  but  the  Reformation 
was  a  change  of  principles  and  practice.  And  finally,  there  was 
no  such  separation  of  the  good  and  evil  at  the  Reformation,  as  is 
denoted  by  the  harvest  and  vintage.  The  Protestants  and  pa- 
pists continued  as  before  to  live  together  promiscuously,  undei 
the  same  laws,  sustaining  similar  relations  to  the  civil  rulers, 
rendering  them  the  same  service,  and  concurring  still  in  the  zeal- 
ous maintenance  of  many  most  pernicious  errors. 

Mr.  Cuninghame  regards  the  subjects  of  the  harvest  as  the 
innumerable  multitude  of  the  seventh  chapter,  having  palms  in 
their  hands  ;  and  the  reaping  as  representing  their  being  gathered 
together  and  transfigured,  in  order  to  deliverance  from  the  de- 
struction which  is  to  descend  on  the  idolatrous  in  the  papal  em- 
pire, and  the  worshippers  of  false  gods  in  other  nations.  But 
he  founds  that  construction  on  the  erroneous  assumption  that  the 
personage  seated  on  the  cloud,  is  the  Son  of  God.     The  language 

59 


406  THE   VINTAGE. 

moreover,  in  which  the  gathering  together  of  the  elect  is  foretold, 
Matthew  xxiv.  30,  is  not  fraught  with  any  indication  that  it  is  to 
be  in  order  to  their  transfiguration,  rather  than  their  change  from 
mortal  to  immortal.  He  seemed  not  aware  that  the  latter  is  the 
change  to  be  wrought  in  the  living  believers  generally.  The 
representation  in  Matthew  xiii.  30,  41-43,  implies  that  it  is  after 
the  destruction  of  the  enemies  of  God,  that  the  living  righteous 
are  to  shine  as  the  stars ;  and  it  is  probably  at  a  later  period. 


SECTION  XXXVIII. 
CHAPTER    XIV.    17-20. 

THE    VINTAGE. 


And  another  angel  came  out  of  the  temple  which  is  in  heaven,  he 
also  having  a  sharp  sickle.  And  another  angel  went  from  the  altar, 
having  power  over  the  fire,  and  he  cried  with  a  loud  voice  to  him 
who  had  the  sharp  sickle,  saying,  Thrust  thy  sharp  sickle  and  gath- 
er the  clusters  of  the  vine  of  the  earth,  for  her  grapes  are  ripe.  And 
the  angel  thrust  his  sickle  to  the  earth,  and  gathered  the  vine  of  the 
earth,  and  cast  into  the  great  wine-press  of  the  wrath  of  God.  And 
the  wine-press  was  trodden  without  the  city.  And  blood  went  out 
of  the  wine-press  up  to  the  horses'  bridles  for  a  thousand  six  hun- 
dred furlongs. 

The  scene  presented  to  the  apostle  in  this  vision, — probably 
the  same  as  in  the  former, — was  the  city  by  which  the  apostate 
hierarchies  are  represented,  surrounded  by  the  symbolic  earth 
covered  with  harvest-fields  and  vineyards.  The  harvest  had  been 
reaped  and  gathered  into  storehouses,  the  grapes  had  become 
ripe  and  ready  for  the  vintage. 

The  procedure  of  the  angel  with  the  sickle  from  the  temple  in 
heaven,  and  descent  to  the  earth,  signifies  that  those  whom  he 
represents  are  to  go  from  the  divine  presence,  and  are,  therefore, 
angels.  The  fire  of  the  altar  by  which  the  sacrificial  victims  were 
consumed,  is  a  symbol  of  the  instruments  of  avenging  justice. 
The  injunction  by  the  angel  having  power  over  the  fire,  to  gath- 
er the  vine  of  the  earth,  implies,  therefore,  that  those  wdiom  the 
clusters  represent,  are  to  be  gathered  for  vengeance,  and  thence 
are  the  worshippers  of  the  wild  beast  and  its  image.      That  the 


THE  VINTAGE;  467 

grapes  of  the  earth  and  the  harvest  were  ripe,  denotes  that  the 
principles  of  tlie  two  classes  which  they  represent,  are  fully  de- 
veloped and  defined,  and  their  character  settled  and  made  con- 
spicuous as  worshippers  of  God,  or  apostates,  so  that  it  is  mani- 
fest that  his  dispensations  towards  them,  are  in  conformity  with 
their  dispositions  and  conduct.  The  dejection  of  the  vine  into  the 
great  wine-press  of  the  wrath  of  God,  signifies  that  those  whom 
the  vine  symbolizes  are  to  be  crushed  by  the  vengeance  of  the 
Almighty.  The  treading  of  the  wine-press  outside  of  the  city, 
the  symbol  of  the  nationahzed  hierarchies,  denotes  that  the  grapes 
are  from  their  vineyards,  and  represent  those,  therefore,  who 
have  been  subject  to  their  control  and  devoted  to  their  use.  The 
river  of  blood  flowing  from  the  press,  indicates  the  violence  and 
the  vastness  of  the  destruction. 

This  symbol,  then,  foreshows  that  angels  are  to  descend  from 
the  divine  presence,  and  gather  together  the  incorrigible  enemies 
of  God,  who  have  been  devoted  to  the  apostate  hierarchies,  in 
order  to  their  destruction.  It  is  a  different  gathering,  therefore, 
from  that  at  Armageddon,  where  the  wild  beast  and  false  pro- 
phet are  to  be  taken  ;  as  that  is  to  be  prompted  by  the  unclean 
spirits,  this  by  angels.  That,  moreover,  is  to  precede  the  sev- 
enth trumpet,  this  is  undoubtedly  to  follow  it.  That  is  to  be  vol- 
untary, this  by  compulsion.  It  is  the  gathering,  therefore,  prob- 
ably foreshown  in  the  parable  of  the  goats,  in  which  those  who 
have  evinced  their  want  of  a  proper  disposition  towards  Christ, 
by  refusing  to  succor  his  brethren  when  persecuted  by  the  wild 
beast  and  false  prophet,  are  to  be  judged  and  destroyed  ;  and  is 
to  embrace  those  only,  as  the  parable  implies,  who  have  acted  in 
that  relation,  dwelt  within  the  territory  of  the  great  city,  owned 
her  jurisdiction,  furnished  her  with  her  resources,  and  supported 
her  in  her  tyrannies. 

The  dejection  of  the  vine  into  the  press,  is  a  different  work  from 
the  treading.  The  former  is  the  act  of  the  reapers.  The  latter, 
we  are  shown  in  the  nineteenth  chapter,  is  to  be  the  work  of  the 
Son  of  God.  The  period  is  to  be  after  the  fall  of  the  city  and 
the  destruction  of  the  wild  beast  and  false  prophet,  as  it  is  to  fol- 
low the  harvest,  of  which  the  risen  and  glorified  saints  arc  to  be 
the  reapers,  and,  therefore,  is  to  be  after  the  visible  advent  of  the 
Son  of  God.  The  wild  beast  and  false  prophet  are  first  to  be  ta- 
ken alive  and  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire.  Their  armies,  the  whole 
organized  array  of  their  supporters,  are  next  to  be  slain.  Then  as 
a  shepherd,  Christ  is  to  gather  and  judge  the  nations  who  have  act- 
ed in  an  mnnediaie  relation  to  him  as  Messiah,  and  assign  the  true 


468  THE  VINTAGE. 

worshippers  to  everlasting  life,  and  tread  the  apostates  in  the 
wine-press  of  wrath. 

Mr.  Brightman  regarded  the  vintage  as  symbolizing  the  sup- 
pression of  the  monastic  institutions  of  England  by  Henry  VIII., 
and  confiscation  of  their  property  ;  the  angel  from  the  temple  as 
Cromwell,  the  king's  vicegerent  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  ;  the  an- 
gel having  power  over  the  fire  of  the  altar,  as  archbishop  Cran- 
mer.  But  the  grapes  are  the  symbols  of  human  beings,  not  of  the 
relations  of  such  beings,  their  lands,  houses,  and  other  wealth. 
Henry  Vill.  was  the  head  of  one  of  the  dynasties  represented 
by  the  horns  of  the  wild  beast,  not  the  tread er  of  this  wnie-press. 
Cromwell  belonged  to  the  body  of  that  wild  beast,  and  Cranmer 
was  of  the  hierarchy  of  the  national  church,  and  thence  of  the 
body  denoted  by  great  Babylon.  They  were  not  angels  of 
the  divine  presence,  therefore.  And  finally,  the  dispersion  of  the 
monks  and  nuns,  and  confiscation  of  their  property,  took  place 
three  hundred  years  and  more  before  the  close  of  the  wild  beast's 
reign  ;  but  the  period  assigned  to  the  vintage  is  to  be  after  its 
judgment  and  destruction. 

The  supposition  of  Mr.  Daubuz,  that  the  vintage  foreshows  a  war 
on  the  Catholic  church  by  Protestant  states  prompted  by  Reformed 
ministers,  is  equally  erroneous.  He  founds  it  on  the  assumption  that 
the  temple  in  heaven  in  which  the  Almighty  was  throned,  is  a  sym- 
bol of  the  state  of  the  church  on  earth,  as  established  and  protected 
by  a  civil  government.  He  thence  regards  the  angel  with  the  sickle 
coming  out  of  the  temple,  as  a  prince  coming  out  of  a  Protestant 
state ;  and  the  angel  at  the  altar,  as  a  symbol  of  Reformed  ministers, 
exciting  him  to  war.  But  that  is  to  make  the  angels  of  the  temple  in 
heaven,  symbols  of  the  antichristian  rulers  and  apostate  teachers 
represented  in  the  Apocalypse  by  the  ten-horned  wild  beast,  the 
wild  beast  of  two  horns,  and  the  image.  All  princes,  who,  since 
the  rise  of  the  ten  kingdoms,  tyrannize  over  the  church,  and  em- 
bark in  religious  wars,  and  all  nationalized  ecclesiastics  who 
prompt  such  wars,  belong  indisputably  to  the  array  represented 
by  those  symbols.  The  witnesses  of  God  do  not  resort  to  the 
sword  for  aggression  or  defence.  They  destroy  their  enemies 
only  by  the  fire  that  proceeds  out  of  their  mouth.  To  relinquish 
or  distrust  that  weapon  and  become  warriors  and  persecutors, 
were  to  forfeit  their  office  as  witnesses.  Nor  is  the  temple  in 
heaven  a  symbol  of  a  state  of  the  church  on  earth  established  by 
civil  governments,  or  in  any  relation  to  political  powers.  Visible 
objects  are  never  symbols  of  mere  relations.  There  is  no  anal- 
ogy between  them.      Nor  is  the  temple  in  heaven,  in  which  the 


THE  VICTORS  ON  THE  GLASSY  SEA.  469 

Almighty  is  throned  and  receives  the  homage  of  the  ancehc 
hosts,  a  symbol  of  the  relations  of  a  nationalized  church  to  its 
civil  government.  They  are  not  only  without  resemblance  and 
absolutely  dissimilar,  but  the  supposition  is  the  most  monstrous 
that  can  be  conceived;  as  it  imphes  that  the  throne  also  is  on 
earth,  and  the  being  who  occupies  it;  that  he  is  also  a  visible,  and 
thence  a  human  agent ;  and  as  he  is  the  object  of  religious 
homage,  the  head,  therefore,  of  the  apostate  church,  the  usurper  of 
the  empire,  and  the  rival  of  the  Almighty. 

Mr.  Mede  and  Mr.  Cuninghame  exhibit  the  vintage  as  the 
same  as  the  gathering  and  destruction  of  the  kings  of  the  earth 
and  their  armies,  at  the  battle  of  Armageddon.  But  that  is  to 
be  instigated  by  the  unclean  spirits,  and  is  to  be  voluntary  ;  this 
is  to  be  caused  by  angels,  and  is  to  be  by  compulsion.  That  is 
to  be  in  order  to  a  battle  ;  this  in  order  to  a  judgment  and  de- 
struction. 


SECTION   XXXIX. 

CHAPTER  XV,   1-4. 
THE    VICTORS    ON    THE    GLASSY    SEA. 

And  I  saw  another  sign  in  heaven,  great  and  wonderful  :  seven 
angels  having  the  last  seven  plagues,  because  in  them  the  wrath  of 
God  is  finished.  And  I  saw  as  it  were  a  glassy  sea  mingled  with 
fire  ;  and  they  who  were  victorious  from  the  wild  beast,  and  from  its 
image,  and  from  the  number  of  its  name,  stationed  on  the  glassy  sea, 
having  harps  of  God.  And  they  sing  the  song  of  Moses,  the  ser- 
vant of  God,  and  the  song  of  the  Lamb  ;  saying,  Great  and  wonder- 
ful thy  works,  O  Lord  God  Ahnighty ;  just  and  true  thy  ways,  King 
of  the  nations.  Who  shall  not  fear,  O  Lord,  and  glorify  thy  name 
as  alone  holy  ;  for  all  the  nations  shall  come  and  worship  before 
thee,  because  thy  judgments  have  been  made  manifest. 

The  whole  of  this  spectacle  was  in  heaven.  The  sea,  as  is 
seen  from  chap.  iv.  6,  was  a  space  in  front  of  the  throne,  and  ex- 
terior therefore  to  the  elders.  It  resembled,  from  its  transparent 
pavement  interspangled  with  gems,  a  smooth,  watery  expanse, 
refracting  the  red  glow  of  sunset,  or  the  crimson  tints  of  the  sky. 
its  comparison  to  a  sea  indicates  an  extent  far  too  great  for  the 


470  THE  VICTORS  ON  THE   GLASSY  SEA. 

interior  of  the  temple.  It  was  doubtless  a  vast  area  extending 
from  its  front,  and  implies  a  corresponding  greatness  of  the  host 
stationed  on  it.  They  are  the  victorious  from  the  conflict  with 
the  wild  beast,  and  with  its  image,  and  with  the  number  of  its 
name  ; — the  vast  crowd  of  witnesses  who  have  held  the  testimo- 
ny of  Jesus,  and  refused  submission  to  those  antichristian  pow- 
ers, through  the  long  period  of  their  triumph  ;  neither  having 
sanctioned  the  civil  rulers  in  their  usurpation  of  the  prerogatives 
of  God,  obeyed  the  apostate  hierarchies  as  of  the  authority  which 
they  claim,  nor,  through  fear  of  persecution,  suppressed  their 
dissent,  and  yielded  a  nominal  submission  to  their  sway,  which 
is  the  victory  over  its  name  doubtless,  in  distinction  from  the  vic- 
tory over  the  wild  beast  and  its  image.  That  they  thus  chant 
the  wisdom  and  rectitude  of  the  Almighty  when  about  to  judge 
those  usurping  and  persecuting  powers,  indicates  a  vast  intelli- 
gence of  the  reasons  of  that  great  measure  of  his  administration, 
a  realization  of  its  necessity  to  his  vindication,  and  an  under- 
standing of  the  salutary  impressions  it  is  to  make  on  the  universe. 
They  have  harps  of  God,  given  by  him,  and  devoted  to  his  praise  ; 
and  they  sing  the  song  of  Moses,  as  it  is  like  his  a  celebration  of 
the  greatness,  wonderfulness,  and  justice  of  the  divine  ways  ;  and 
the  song  of  the  Lamb,  as  he  is  the  Lord  the  God  Almighty,  who 
has  exercised  the  government  of  the  universe  during  the  triumph 
of  the  wild  beast,  and  the  King  of  the  nations  who  is  now  to 
judge  that  usurper,  take  possession  of  the  earth,  and  bring  all  its 
tribes  to  obedience.  Their  song.  Great  and  wonderful  thy  works, 
0  Lord  the  God  Almighty,  just  and  true  thy  ways.  King  of  the 
nations,  is  an  adoring  acknowledgment  that  it  was  in  boundless 
wisdom  that  he  had  through  so  many  ages  allowed  the  triumph 
of  the  wild  beast,  and  persecution  and  slaughter  of  his  witnesses, 
and  that  s.potless  rectitude  and  truth  had  marked  all  his  dispen- 
sations towards  them  in  their  conflict  with  that  usurping  power, 
and  were  now  to  mark  the  avenging  judgments  by  which  he  was 
to  destroy  it.  The  question,  Who  shall  not  fear,  O  Loi-d,  and 
glorify  thy  name  as  alone  holy,  implies  that  the  grounds  on  which 
he  proceeds  are  to  be  so  fully  made  known,  and  the  greatness 
and  wisdom  of  the  results  of  his  administration,  that  none  can 
resist  the  demonstration  of  his  benevolence  and  skill,  or  escape 
the  conviction  that  he  alone  is  adequate  to  conduct  the  govern- 
ment of  his  empire,  all-knowing,  all-wise,  all-good,  almighty  ; 
that  all  the  objections  of  his  enemies  are  groundless,  and  all  the 
doubts,  the  fears,  the  perplexities  of  his  people  without  founda- 
tion ;  while  the  prophecy.  All  nations  shall  come  and  worship 


THE  SEVEN  ANGELS  WITH  THE   SEVEN  VIALS.  471 

before  thee,  because  thy  judgments  have  been  made  manifest, 
imphes  that  the  terrific  inflictions  by  which  he  is  to  destroy  his 
great  antagonists,  are  to  be  seen  by  the  nations  to  be  a  vindica- 
tion of  himself,  and  be  the  means  of  awakening  them  from  un- 
belief, convincing  them  of  his  being,  perfections,  rights,  and 
dominion,  and  bringing  them  to  yield  him  acknowledgment  and 
homage. 

How  sublime  the  ascriptions  of  this  song  from  those  who  had 
endured  the  most  cruel  persecution  for  his  sake  ;  and  whom  to 
human  eyes  he  often  seemed  to  have  deserted,  and  left  without 
pity  to  the  malice  of  their  enemies  !  Not  one  of  that  long  train 
of  witnesses  and  martyrs  but  joins  in  the  strain.  What  a  sense 
it  bespeaks  of  the  rightfuhiess  of  his  sovereignty  !  What  an 
acquaintance  with  the  reasons  of  his  procedure  !  What  a  com- 
prehension of  the  results  that  are  to  spring  from  the  manifesta- 
tion that  men  are  allowed  to  make  of  their  hostility  to  him,  and 
from  the  exhibition  of  his  righteousness  towards  them  !  What 
a  knowledge  and  realization  that  his  ways,  which  liave  seemed 
most  inscrutable,  are  to  become  invested  at  length  in  tlie  eyes  of 
all  his  children  with  dazzling  light  and  beauty,  contribute  to  the 
resistless  energy  of  his  government,  subserve  the  conversion  of 
the  nations,  and  add  forever  to  the  grandeur  and  blessedness  of 
his  empire  ! 

Mr.  Brightman  and  Vitringa  regarded  the  harpers  as  symboli- 
zing believers  on  earth.  But  that  is  to  make  the  temple  in 
heaven  the  representative  of  a  temple  or  place  of  worship  on 
earth,  the  Deity  a  symbol  of  some  visible  being  worshipped  in 
it,  and  the  homage  therefore  of  the  victors  over  the  beast,  the 
symbol  of  an  idolatrous  homage. 


SECTION  XL. 

CHAPTER    XV.    5-8. 

THE  SEVEN  ANGELS  WITH  THE  SEVEN  VIALS. 

And  after  these  I  looked,  and  the  temple  of  the  tabernacle  of  the 
testimony  in  heaven  was  opened.  And  the  seven  angels  who  held 
the  seven  plagues  came  out  of  the  temple  clothed  in  pure  resplen- 
dent linen,  and  bound  with  golden  girdles  around  the  breasts.  And 
one  of  the  four  living  creatures  gave  to  the   seven  angels  seven 


472  THE   SEVEN  ANGELS  WITH  THE  SEVEN  VIALS, 

golden  vials  filled  with  the  wrath  of  God  who  lives  forever  and  ever. 
And  the  temple  was  filled  with  smoke  from  the  glory  of  God,  and 
from  his  power :  And  no  one  was  able  to  enter  into  the  temple  until 
ihe  seven  plagues  of  the  seven  angels  should  be  finished. 

The  temple  of  the  tabernacle  w^hich  was  opened,  was  the  inner 
temple,  in  which  was  the  throne  of  the  Almighty,  as  is  shown  by 
the  apostle's  witnessing  the  delivery  to  the  angels  of  the  vials  by 
one  of  the  four  living  creatures,  whose  station  was  in  the  inner  tem- 
ple. The  angels  stood  in  the  outer  sanctuary,  obviously  fi-om  their 
being  seen  by  the  apostle  before  the  inner  temple  was  opened. 
Their  white  robes  and  golden  girdles  denote  their  rectitude  and 
dignity.  The  delivery  to  them  of  the  vials  by  one  of  the  living 
creatures,  indicates  that  the  august  attendants  in  the  presence 
of  God  whom  they  represent,  are  cognizant  of  his  avenging  judg- 
ments. The  smoke  from  his  glory  and  from  his  power,  with 
which  the  temple  was  filled  during  the  effusion  of  the  vials,  so 
that  no  one  could  enter  it,  denotes  that  the  awful  displays  of  his 
justice  and  sovereignty,  which  the  destruction  of  his  enemies  is 
to  form,  are  to  strike  the  heavenly  hosts  with  the  profoundest 
sense  of  their  infinite  distance  from  him,  the  inflexibleness  of  his 
rectitude,  and  the  helplessness  of  his  enemies,  and  fill  them  with 
awe  and  submission.  They  imply  also  that  no  incense  symbolic 
of  supplications  by  the  saints  on  earth  for  the  salvation  of  his 
antichristian  foes,  or  the  suspension  of  his  judgments,  is  to  be 
offered,  during  that  period  ;  and  that  they  are  to  be  felt  therefore 
by  the  church  on  earth,  as  well  as  the  redeemed  in  heaven,  and 
the  angelic  hosts,  to  be  indispensable  to  his  vindication,  and  the 
great  measures  of  grace  that  are  to  follow. 

Mr.  Whiston  and  Mr.  Cuninghame,  exhibit  the  opening  of  the 
temple  after  the  song  of  the  victors,  as  the  same  as  its  opening  at 
the  sound  of  the  seventh  trumpet ;  and  as  denoting  therefore  the 
coincidence  in  time  of  that  trumpet  and  the  first  vial.  But  that 
assumption  is  erroneous.  That  the  inner  temple  was  opened 
more  than  once,  is  indisputable  from  the  consideration  that  it 
must  have  been  open,  whenever  the  throne,  the  living  creatures, 
and  the  elders  were  visible  to  the  apostle,  as  in  the  visions 
of  the  fourth  and  fifth  chapters,  the  opening  of  the  seals,  and 
the  innumerable  multitude  having  palms.  That  it  was  closed 
after  the  opening  of  the  seventh  seal,  and  remained  shut  during 
the  first  six  trumpets  is  probable  ;  as  there  is  no  indication  of  its 
being  open  in  the  following  visions  until  that  of  the  sealed  in  the 
fourteenth  chapter,  who  are  exhibited  as  singing  a  new  song 
before  the  throne   and  before  the  living  creatures  and  elders. 


THE   FIRST  VIAL.  4Y3 

The  resurrection  and  assumption  to  heaven  of  the  witnesses  also,  it 
is  represented  in  the  eleventh  chapter,  are  to  precede  the  seventh 
trumpet.  It  is  indisputably  certain,  therefore,  that  the  temple  is 
to  be  opened  before  the  seventh  trumpet.  But  as  it  was  to  be 
opened  also  before  the  effusion  of  the  first  vial,  and  as  neither  the 
resurrection  nor  sealing  of  the  witnesses  has  yet  taken  place, 
although  that  vial  was  long  since  poured,  it  is  certain  also  that  it 
is  to  be  opened  before  tlie  resurrection  of  the  witnesses. 

But  the  supposition  that  the  first  vial  and  last  trumpet  com- 
mence at  the  same  period,  is  wholly  irreconcilable  in  other  rela- 
tions with  the  representations  of  the  prophecy.  The  last  vial 
and  last  trumpet  are  cotemporaneous  doubtless,  from  the  simi- 
larity of  the  announcement,  and  the  events  that  follow  them. 
The  assumption  therefore  that  the  first  vial  is  cotemporaneous 
with  that  trumpet,  involves  the  assumption  that  it  is  cotempora- 
neous with  the  last  vial.  Mr.  Cuninghame,  accordingly,  repre- 
sents the  seven  as  poured  at  the  same  moment.  But  that  is  as 
irreconcilable  with  the  symbols,  as  a  similar  supposition  would 
be  in  respect  to  the  seals,  or  the  trumpets.  They  are  as  clearly 
exhibited  as  successive,  as  the  seals  and  trumpets  are.  The 
symbols  which  follow  them,  differ  as  widely  from  each  other,  as 
those  which  follow  the  trumpets.  If  they  are  poured  at  the  same 
moment,  and  the  events  which  follow  take  place  in  the  same 
scene,  as  they  must  spring  from  what  must  appear  to  be  a  com- 
plex cause,  not  from  causes  independent  and  dissimilar,  no  rea- 
son can  be  conceived  for  their  symbolization  under  seven  vials  in 
place  of  one.  And  finally,  the  events  of  the  French  revolution 
of  which  Mr.  Cuninghame  regards  the  first  five  as  symbols,  did 
not  commence  at  the  same  moment,  but  were  as  clearly  distin- 
guished by  a  difference  of  period  as  of  nature. 


SECTION  XLL 

CHAPTER    XVI.    1-2. 

THE    FIRST    VIAL. 


And  I  heard  a  loud  voice  from  the  temple  saying  to  the  seven 
angels,  Go  and  pour  the  seven  vials  of  the  wrath  of  God  on  the 
earth.  And  the  first  went  and  poured  his  vial  on  the  land  ;  and  an 
evil  and  noxious  ulcer  came  on  the  men  who  have  the  mark  of  the 
wild  beast,  and  who  worship  its  image. 

60 


474  THE  FIRST  VIAL. 

The  office  of  the  seven  angels,  is  simply  to  assist  the  revela- 
tion, by  designating  the  commencement  of  the  seven  judgments, 
and  distinguishing  them  as  inflictions  of  divine  wrath  ;  not  to 
symbolize  the  agents  on  earth  by  vv-hom  they  are  caused.  Their 
direction  by  a  voice  from  the  temple  to  pour  out  their  vials,  indi- 
cates that  the  appointment  by  the  Most  High  of  the  great  judg- 
ments which  were  symbolized  by  the  phenomena  following  their 
effusion,  was  to  be  publicly  announced  in  heaven. 

The  land  or  earth,  when  distinguished  from  the  sea,  rivers, 
fountains,  and  heaven,  denotes  the  population  of  an  empire  under 
a  settled  government,  anterior  to  the  commencement  of  a  politi- 
cal agitation.  The  men  on  whom  this  vial  fell,  were  those  who 
have  the  mark  of  the  wild  beast.  They  live  under  and  support 
the  governments  therefore  that  are  symbolized  by  that  monster, 
and  are  inhabitants  accordingly  of  the  ten  kingdoms.  They 
worship  its  image  also,  and  either  live  therefore  under  the  do- 
minion of  the  nationalized  Catholic  hierarchies,  or  acknowledge 
their  authority,  and  offer  their  worship.  The  shower  from  the  vial 
excited  on  those  on  whom  it  fell,  a  malignant  and  infectious  ulcer, 
irritating  to  them,  and  dangerous  to  those  who  came  within  their 
influence. 

The  ulcer  is  symbolic,  and  denotes  an  analogous  disease  of 
tlie  mind  ;  a  restlessness  and  rancor  of  passion  exasperated  by 
agitating  and  noxious  principles  and  opinions,  that  fill  it  with  a 
sense  of  obstruction,  degradation,  and  misery,  resembling  the 
torture  of  an  ulcerated  body. 

This  vial  is  referred  by  most  recent  English  commentators  to 
the  first  step  in  the  French  revolution.  And  no  symbol  can  be 
conceived  more  suited  to  represent  the  restlessness  under  injury, 
the  ardor  of  resentment,  hate,  and  revenge,  the  noxiousness  and 
contagion  of  false  principles  and  opinions,  that  marked  the  com- 
mencement of  the  political  disquiets  and  agitations  of  the  Euro- 
pean states,  toward  the  close  of  the  last  century.  The  eruption 
of  the  ulcer  on  the  vassals  of  the  Avild  beast  and  worshippers  of 
its  image,  indicates  that  the  mental  disease  which  it  symbolizes, 
was  to  be  felt  in  their  relations  to  those  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
powers  ;  and  it  was  from  them  that  the  exasperation  sprung 
which  led  the  French  nation  to  overthrow  their  ancient  govern- 
ment, and  prompted  simjlar  revolutionary  movements  in  all  the 
neighboring  kingdoms.  The  middle  and  lower  classes  univer- 
sally in  France,  were  suddenly  seized  with  an  insupportable 
sense  of  their  oppression  by  the  monarchy,  of  their  degradation 
to  the  condition  of  dependants  and  serfs  by  the  nobles,  of  the 


THE  FIRST  VIAL.  475 

extortions,  robberies,  and  violences  to  wliich  tliey  were  wantonly 
subjected  by  every  class  of  superiors,  of  the  deceptions  and  ty- 
ranny practised  on  them  by  the  church,  and  of  their  hopeless 
obstruction  from  the  improvement  of  which  they  were  capable, 
and  denial  in  every  form  of  the  iiappincss  to  which  they  were 
entitled.  This  torturing  realization  which  sprung  irresistibly 
from  the  consideration  of  their  relations  to  the  government,  to 
which  they  were  called  by  its  embarrassments,  and  the  prospect 
of  new  burdens  in  order  to  remedy  and  support  its  extravagance, 
was  roused  to  a  tenfold  energy  and  made  the  means  of  inflaming 
their  hatred  and  revenge  to  exasperation,  and  ambition  and  hope 
to  madness,  by  the  opinion  to  which  it  gave  birth,  that  the  power 
of  the  monarch,  the  princes,  the  nobility,  and  the  ecclesiastics, 
was  a  sheer  usurpation,  a  stupendous  violation  of  their  rights, 
and  an  atrocious  crime  therefore  demanding  instant  resistance 
and  condign  punishment.^ 

With  this  denial  of  the  title  of  the  king,  the  nobles,  and  the 
ecclesiastics,  to  their  rank  and  authority,  and  assertion  of  the 
absolute  equality  of  all  in  right  and  political  power,  were  min- 
gled new,  false,  and  fanatical  theories  of  liberty,  property,  gov- 
ernment, religion,  and  national  glory,  which  raised  the  most 
extravagant  dreams  of  the  possibility  of  happiness  under  a  demo- 
cratic rule,  and  inflamed  ambition  to  a  phrensy  by  the  prospect 
to  individuals  of  power,  conspicuity,  and  grandeur.  These 
principles  and  sentiments  flashed  instantaneously  like  the  gleam 
of  a  meteor  over  the  whole  kingdom,  roused  that  excitable  and 
passionate  people  universally  to  the  utmost  fervor  of  impatience 
under  the  real  and  imaginary  burden  of  the  superior  ranks,  and 
kindled  a  fanatic  desire  to  disencumber  themselves  of  the  weight, 
and  emerge  to  freedom  and  independence.  Awakened  thus  to  a 
full  sense  of  their  oppressions,  deluded  into  false  views  of  the 
proper  remedy,  and  inflamed  with  extravagant  hope,  they  were 
tortured  by  their  relations  to  the  monarchy,  aristocracy,  and 
church,  with  a  violence  of  misery,  like  men  whom  some  noxious 
element  has  touched,  and  covered  with  a  burning  eruption. 

But  the  exasperating  vial  fell  not  alone  on  that  kingdom. 
France  received  its  first  and  its  largest  tempest.  But  the  angel, 
scattering  a  shower  on  Belgium,  Holland,  and  the  valley  of  the 
Rhine,  crossed  the  Alps,  steeping  height  and  recess  in  the  bitter 
flood,  drenched  the  vales  and  plains  of  Italy,  swept  around  over 
the  German  empire  and  the  British  isles,  and  finally,  dashed  the 
vengeance  dregs  on  the  peninsula  of  Portugal  and  Spain,  and 
'  Alison's  Hist.  vol.  i.  chap.  2. 


476  THE  FIRST  VIAL. 

the  distant  southern  shores  of  this  continent.  The  whole  cir- 
cuit of  the  ten  kingdoms  thus  became  the  scene,  in  a  degree,  of 
a  similar  dissatisfaction  with  the  established  governments,  fa- 
natical theories  of  liberty  and  equality,  and  wild  and  desperate 
projects  of  demagogueism  and  revolution. 

The  commencement  of  the  effusion  may  with  probability  be 
dated  as  early  as  1786,  when  the  convocation  of  the  French  No- 
tables to  remedy  the  financial  embarrassments  of  the  govern- 
ment, drew  the  eyes  of  the  whole  people  to  the  extravagances  of 
the  monarchy,  and  arbitrary  domination  of  the  nobles  and  ec- 
clesiastics. The  approach  of  new  exactions  and  prospect  of 
interminable  oppression,  roused  them  to  the  expression  of  their 
sentiments,  and  gave  scope  to  the  democratic  speculations  which, 
in  1789,  produced  the  assembly  of  the  states-general. 

Grotius  and  Dr.  Hammond,  in  their  usual  manner,  regard  the 
symbol  as  denoting  a  literal  plague,  or  pestilence.  But  that  is 
to  make  the  representative  and  thing  repi'esented  of  the  same 
species. 

Mr.  Brightman  interprets  it  of  the  malice  and  envy  of  the 
pope,  the  bishops,  and  other  chief  ecclesiastics,  princes,  and 
nobles,  excited  by  the  ejection  of  the  papists  in  England  from 
ofHce,  and  elevation  of  the  Protestants  to  power,  during  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth.  But  that  is  to  exhibit  the  vial  as  poured  on 
the  two  wild  beasts  and  the  hierarchies,  in  place  of  those  who 
have  the  mark  of  the  beast,  and  worship  its  image. 

Mr.  Mede  interprets  it  of  the  chagrin  and  exasperation  of  the 
Catholics,  at  the  exposure  and  denunciation  of  their  errors  by 
the  Waldenses,  Albigenses,  Wicklifites,  Hussites,  and  others. 
But  that  is  to  exhibit  the  vial  as  poured  on  the  apostates  as 
vassals  of  the  false  prophet  only,  not  also,  as  the  prophecy  rep- 
resents, as  worshippers  of  the  wild  beast.  It  was  in  their  civil 
relations  in  a  higher  degree  than  in  their  ecclesiastical,  that  they 
felt  the  influence  of  the  vial.  The  exposition  by  Cocceius,  who 
refers  it  to  the  dissensions  and  divisions  of  the  Catholics  through 
a  long  succession  of  ages,  is  open  to  similar  objections. 

Mr.  Daubuz,  Mr.  Jurieu,  and  Vitringa,  regard  it  as  denoting 
the  extreme  corruption  of  the  apostate  church,  and  refer  it  to 
the  middle  ages,  when  superstition  and  idolatry  reached  tlieir 
height.  But  the  ulcer  is  not  an  element  of  the  corruption  of 
the  church,  or  one  of  its  settled  characteristics,  but  a  peculiar 
infliction  because  of  its  depravity.  It  is  a  plague  too  that  falls 
on  men  who  are  the  vassals  of  the  civil  governments  and  nation- 
ahzed  hierarchies,  not  on  kings,  princes,  nobles,  and  ecclesias- 


THE   SECOND  VIAL.  477 

tical  dignitaries ;  and  is  not  common  therefore  to  the  corrupt 
church  at  large,  rulers  as  well  as  ruled,  as  are  its  false  doctrines, 
superstitions,  and  idolatries.  It  is,  moreover,  a  torture  in  regard 
to  which,  as  in  a  corporeal  disease,  they  are  in  a  large  degree 
passive  ;  and  not,  therefore,  a  mere  depravity  of  principles  and 
practice,  in  which  they  are  voluntary. 

Mr.  Cuninghame  interprets  it  of  the  spirit  of  atheism,  anarchy, 
and  insubordination,  which  marked  the  French  revolution  ;  Mr. 
Faber  and  Mr.  Keith,  of  the  infidelity  ;  and  Mr.  Elliott,  of  "  the 
outbreak  of  democratic  fury,  atheism,  and  vice,  which  charac- 
terized that  event."  But  atheism,  infidelity,  lawlessness,  and 
vice,  were  common  to  the  nobles  and  ecclesiastics,  as  well  as 
the  philosophers,  demagogues,  and  rabble  ;  while  the  torturing 
eruption  was  limited  to  those  who  have  the  mark  of  the  wild 
beast  and  worship  its  image  ;  and  thence  denotes  an  evil  that 
was  peculiar  to  the  subjects  of  the  civil  governments  and  nation- 
alized Catholic  hierarchies,  in  distinction  from  those  bodies,  and 
that  sprung  therefore  from  their  rela'tions  to  their  political  and 
ecclesiastical  superiors  ;  and  was  that  torturing  sense  of  oppres- 
sion undoubtedly  to  which  I  have  referred  it,  antagonism  of  prin- 
ciples, wishes,  and  designs,  and  exasperation  of  hate,  which 
were  the  first  and  most  violent  surges  of  that  terrible  social  tem- 
pest. That  eruption  of  rancorous  passion  exhibits  all  the  cha- 
racteristics of  the  symbol.  The  middle  and  lower  orders  were 
its  subjects,  in  contradistinction  from  the  superior.  It  was  di- 
rected against  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  rulers  ;  it  was  in  a 
large  degree  involuntary,  it  was  torturing,  it  was  contagious  and 
deadly. 


SECTION  XLII. 
CHAPTER    XVI.    3. 

THE  SECOND  VIAL. 


And  the  second  angel  poured  his  vial  on  the  sea ;  and  it  became 
blood  as  of  one  dead ;  and  every  creature  of  life  died  in  the  sea. 

The  sea  denotes  the  population  of  a  central  or  principal  king- 
dom, in  violent  commotion.  Wherever  the  drops,  showered 
from  the  vase,  fell  on  the  waters,  they  became  gore,  as  though 


478  THE   SECOND  VIAL. 

one  had  bled  there  to  death.  The  expanse  became  spotted  with 
blood,  like  a  vast  battle-field,  over  which  thousands  recently 
slaughtered  are  strovvn ;  and  all  orders  of  animals  to  which 
the  waters  had  before  been  congenial  and  the  source  of  suste- 
nance, were  destroyed  by  them.  The  blood-spots  on  the  waves, 
denote  both  that  their  blood  whom  the  waters  represent  was  to 
be  shed,  and  that  they  were  to  shed  the  blood  of  others,  sustain- 
ing a  relation  to  them  like  that  of  fish  to  the  waters  which  they 
inhabit,  and  besmear  themselves  with  slaughter.  This  is  im- 
plied in  the  color  of  the  waves  independently  of  the  death  of  the 
creatures,  and  in  their  causing  their  death  ;  and  is  shown  in  the 
representation  under  the  third  vial,  that  those  who  are  symbol- 
ized by  the  rivers  and  fountains,  are  compelled  to  make  blood 
their  drink,  or  maintain  their  own  life  by  the  slaughter  of  others. 

The  sea  is  to  the  animals  that  live  in  it,  and  derive  from  it 
their  nourisliment,  what  a  people  is  to  the  monarch,  nobles,  eccle- 
siastical dignitaries,  and  other  influential  orders,  who  owe  to  them 
their  station  and  support.  The  bloodiness  of  the  Avater  therefore, 
through  which  all  creatures  inhabiting  it  died,  indicates  that  those 
slaughterers  of  one  another,  whom  the  waves  represent,  are  also 
to  destroy  all  orders  of  their  superiors. 

This  symbol  denotes  the  second  great  act  in  the  tragedy  of 
the  French  revolution,  in  which  the  people  slaughtered  one 
another  in  feuds,  insurrections,  and  civil  wars  ;  and  exterminated 
with  the  dagger,  the  bayonet,  and  the  guillotine,  all  the  influen- 
tial ranks — king  and  queen,  nobles  and  prelates,  civil  magistrates 
and  priests,  military  commanders  and  soldiers,  persons  of  illus- 
trious descent,  of  distinguished  reputation,  of  talents  and  wealth  ; 
and  demagogues,  politicians,  and  chiefs,  who  rose  to  conspicuity 
and  influence  by  their  acts  as  revolutionists.  The  slaughter 
commenced  in  the  attack  on  the  Bastille  on  the  14th  of  July, 
17b9.  Similar  violences  were  soon  after  perpetrated  in  every 
part  of  the  kingdom.  The  people  of  the  rural  districts  rose 
generally  in  insurrection  and  slaughtered  the  nobles,  their  fami- 
lies, and  their  supporters.  The  Parisian  mob  in  October,  at- 
tacked the  palace  at  Versailles,  and  killed  several  soldiers,  and 
on  the  10th  of  August  of  the  following  year,  slaughtered  the 
king's  guards,  and  drove  him  from  the  throne.  In  August,  1792, 
the  revolutionary  tribunal  was  established ;  and  the  extermina- 
tion of  the  influential  ranks  commenced  on  a  vast  scale,  and 
continued  till  not  only  the  king,  the  queen,  the  princes,  the  no- 
bles, the  prelates,  and  thousands  of  their  conspicuous  supporters, 
were  destroyed,  but  a  great  part  of  the  leaders  also  of  the  rev- 


THE   SECOND  VIAL.  479 

olution.  In  the  civil  war  of  La  Vendee  alone,  a  million  of 
persons  of  all  ranks  and  ages,  are  said  to  have  perished.^ 

Mr.  Brightman  expounds  the  sea  of  the  council  of  Trent,  and 
its  bloodiness  of  their  doctrinal  errors.  But  the  sea  is  the  sym- 
bol of  a  people  in  their  political  relations,  not  of  an  ecclesiastical 
council ;  and  blood  is  indicative  of  a  death  by  violence,  not  by 
disease. 

Mr.  Mede  interprets  the  sea  of  the  Catholic  church,  and  the 
blood,  of  its  laceration  and  dismemberment  by  the  secession  of 
multitudes  and  nations  at  the  Reformation,  But  the  sea  is  the 
symbol  of  a  nation  in  its  civil  relations,  not  in  its  ecclesiastical. 
It  is  as  wrorshippers  of  the  beast,  not  as  vassals  of  the  false 
prophet,  that  those  whom  the  waves  denote  are  stained  with 
blood  ;  and  the  blood  denotes  their  slaughter  of  one  another,  not 
their  conversion  to  the  true  faith. 

Mr.  Jurieu  interprets  the  slaughter  of  the  crusades.  But  that 
is  not  in  conformity  with  the  symbol.  It  is  to  represent  the 
waters  as  removed  to  a  distance  in  order  to  be  tinged  with  blood, 
instead  of  receiving  the  coloring  element  in  their  usual  position. 

Mr.  Daubuz  regards  the  animals  that  died  as  symbolizing  the 
crusaders,  but  that  is  to  assume  that  they  died  by  leaving  the 
sea,  instead  of  being  killed  by  the  agency  of  the  waters. 

Vitringa  refers  tiie  symbol  to  the  wars  of  the  Ghibelines  and 
Guelphs.  But  they  were  struggles  between  the  emperor  and  pope 
and  their  respective  parties  for  political  supremacy.  There  was 
no  extermination  by  the  people  of  all  their  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
superiors. 

Mr.  Faber  refers  it  to  the  reign  of  terror  during  the  French 
revolution.  Mr.  Cuninghame  regards  it  as  denoting  the  slaughter 
of  the  French  nation,  without  any  consideration  of  their  rank, 
not  only  by  their  own  hands,  but  by  those  with  whom  they  cm- 
barked  in  war,  from  the  commencement  of  the  revolution  to  the 
overthrow  of  the  empire.  But  that  is  to  overlook  the  distinction 
between  the  sea,  which  represents  the  tumultuary  multitude  and 
the  animals  supported  in  it,  which  symbolize  the  superior  orders. 
It  is  to  disregard  the  representation  also,  that  it  was  by  the 
agency  of  the  bloody  water  that  all  creatures  of  life  were  de- 
stroyed, not  in  any  degree  by  their  migration  to  the  streams  and 
fountains.  The  sea  denotes  only  the  destroying  multitude  :  the 
animals  destroyed,  those  of  a  different  rank  or  relation  whom 
they  put  to  death,  as  the  princes,  nobles,  priests,  legislators, 
magistrates,  mihtary  commanders,  soldiers,  demagogues,  and 
*  Alison's  Hist.,  vol.  i.  chap.  6  ;  vol.  ii.  chap.  10,  14,  15,  17. 


480  THE  THIRD  VIAL. 

whoever  assumed  the  altitude  of  resistance  to  their  will,  or  be- 
came the  objects-  of  their  envy  or  dread.  Those  domestic 
slaughters  are  said  to  have  amounted,  ere  the  close  of  1795,  to 
two  millions. 

Mr.  Keith  regards  the  symbol  as  foreshowing  the  maritime 
wars  that  followed  the  French  revolution ;  Mr.  Elliott  as  indica- 
ting not  only  the  destruction  of  fleets  and  merchant  ships,  but 
also  the  revolutions  and  slaughters  in  the  French,  Spanish,  and 
Portuguese  colonies.  But  that  is  to  exhibit  the  symbolic  sea 
and  that  which  it  denotes  as  of  the  same  species  ;  which  is 
against  analogy.  It.  implies,  also,  that  the  creatures  destroyed 
by  the  waters  were  literally  those  that  inhabit  them,  and  over- 
throws therefore  his  own  exposition.  It  is  to  represent  them, 
also,  as  killing  one  another  in  place  of  being  destroyed  by  the 
crimsoned  waters,  which  is  to  contradict  the  representation  of 
the  symbol.  It  is  also  to  assume  that  actions  of  the  same  kinds, 
and  of  the  same  agents,  and  exerted  at  the  same  periods,  are 
discriminated  from  each  other,  and  represented  by  different  and 
successive  symbols,  simply  because  some  of  them  are  exert- 
ed on  water,  or  in  its  vicinity,  and  the  others  on  land,  which  is 
wholly  without  authorit)^  and  a  total  misrepresentation  of  the 
reason  for  which  different  symbols  are  used.  The  diversity  of 
symbols  is  in  order  to  a  representation  of  the  diversity  of  agents 
and  events  which  they  foreshow  ;  not  of  their  geographical 
scene.  They  are  exhibited  in  succession,  not  simultaneously, 
because  the  agents  which  they  denote  commence  their  agency  at 
different  periods,  not  cotemporaneously.  To  assume  that  the  di- 
versity of  symbolic  agents  and  actions  is  no  indication  of  a  dif- 
ference of  the  agents  and  events  represented,  but  only  of  the 
scene  in  which  they  are  to  appear,  is  to  divest  them  of  all  their 
peculiar  character,  and  reduce  them  to  insignificance. 


SECTION  XLIII. 

CHAPTER   XVI.   4-7. 

THE    THIRD    VIAL. 


And  the  third  poured  his  vial  into  the  rivers  and  into  the  fountains 
of  waters  ;  and  they  became  blood.  And  I  heard  the  angel  of  the 
waters  say,  Righteous  art  thou  who  art  and  who  wast,  the  holy,  that 


THE  THIRD  VIAL.  481 

thou  hast  adjudged  these  things  :  for  they  have  shed  the  blood  of 
saints  and  prophets  ;  and  thou  hast  given  them  blood  to  drink.  They 
are  worthy.  And  I  heard  another  at  the  altar  say,  Yea,  O  Lord,  the 
God  Almighty,  true  and  just  are  thy  judgments. 

Rivers  and  fountains  are  to  a  sea  what  smaller  exterior  com- 
munities and  nations  are  to  a  great  central  people.  As  the 
French  nation  was  the  sea,  the  rivers  and  fountains  are  the 
smaller  communities  and  remote  nations  of  the  other  apocalyptic 
kingdoms.  The  blood  with  which  the  rivers  and  fountains  ran 
wherever  the  shower  of  the  vial  fell,  denotes  that  their  blood 
whom  the  waters  symbolize  was  to  be  shed,  and  that  they  also 
were  to  shed  the  blood  of  others,  as  is  shown  by  the  representa- 
tion that  blood  was  to  be  made  their  drink, — a  means  by  which 
they  should  gratify  their  passions,  and  be  nourished,  and  continue 
to  subsist,  and  the  blood  therefore  of  foreigners  drawn  in  repress- 
ing their  invasions.  The  exclamation  of  the  angel  who  poured 
the  vial  on  the  waters,  and  the  response  of  the  angel  at  the  altar, 
show  that  the  rivers  and  fountains  symbolize  nations  ;  that  the 
nations  who  were  to  sufTer  and  inflict  the  slaughters  indicated 
by  the  blood,  had  persecuted  the  saints  and  witnesses  of  God, 
and  shed  their  blood  ;  and  that  the  destruction  to  which  they  were 
doomed  was  to  be  in  retribution  of  their  crimes  as  persecutors, 
and  was  righteous,  and  was  to  be  regarded  and  celebrated  as  such 
by  the  heavenly  hosts. 

This  symbol  denotes  the  vast  bloodshed  in  the  other  apoca- 
lyptic kingdoms,  in  the  insurrections  and  wars  that  sprung  out  of 
the  French  revolution.  That  destructive  contest  was  commenced 
by  the  French  with  Austria  on  the  20th  of  April,  1792,  and  soon 
extended  to  Holland,  Sardinia,  Russia,  Italy,  Spain,  England, 
Prussia,  Switzerland,  Denmark,  and  Portugal,  and  continued  with 
little  intermission  for  more  than  twenty  years,  in  which  the  blood 
of  millions  of  the  French  was  poured  out  on  the  soil  of  the  other 
kingdoms  ;  millions  of  the  other  nations  slain  in  resisting  their 
aggressions  ;  and  vast  multitudes  of  the  unarmed  of  both  sexes 
put  to  death  in  the  violences  of  revolution,  the  siege  and  sack  of 
cities,  and  the  repression  of  insurrections.  All  those  nations  had 
been  persecutors  of  the  saints  and  propiiets,  and  blood  was  given 
them  to  drink.  War  became  their  trade,  and  the  means  by  which 
they  maintained  their  national  existence. 

Mr.  Mede  interpreted  the  rivers  and  fountains  of  the  active 
agents  of  the  beast  and  false  prophet,  as  the  Spanish  soldiers  in 
Belgium  and  the  Jesuits  in  England,  and  deemed  tiie  symboliza- 
tion  fulfilled  in  their  obstruction  and  slaughter  in  the  sixteenth 

61 


482  THE  FOURTH  VIAL. 

century.  But  that  is  to  contradict  the  symbol.  Streams  and 
fountains  are  not  agents  of  the  sea  sent  forth  into  other  lands. 
Their  current  is  towards  the  sea,  not  in  the  opposite  direction. 

Mr.  Faber  and  Mr.  Cuninghame  interpret  the  symbol  of  the 
wars  generally  of  the  French  revolution ;  Mr.  Keith  and  Mr. 
Elliott  of  the  battles  of  those  wars  that  took  place  on  the  rivers 
and  at  their  sources. 


SECTION    XLIV. 
CHAPTER    XVI.    8,9. 

THE  FOURTH  VIAL. 


And  the  fourth  poured  his  vial  on  the  sun  ;  and  it  viras  given  to  it 
to  scorch  the  men  with  fire.  And  the  men  were  scorched  with  great 
heat.  And  they  blasphemed  the  name  of  God,  who  has  power  over 
these  plagues,  and  changed  not  to  give  him  glory. 

Those  who  exercise  the  government  of  a  kingdom,  are  to  the 
people  whom  they  rule,  what  the  sun  is  to  the  land  and  sea. 
Their  office  is  to  subserve  tlie  well-being  of  their  subjects,  by 
protecting  their  persons,  securing  to  them  the  fruits  of  their  in- 
dustry, maintaining  their  rights,  and  aiding  them  to  the  cultiva- 
tion and  happiness  for  which  they  are  formed  ;  as  the  office  of 
the  sun  is  to  yield  that  measure  of  light  and  heat  Avhich  is  most 
favorable  to  vegetable  and  animal  life.  But  when  they  usurp  or 
acquire  extraordinary  power,  and  employ  it  in  the  violent  oppres- 
sion of  their  people,  robbing  them  of  their  property,  obstructing 
their  industry,  depriving  them  of  freedom,  and  overwhelming 
them  with  the  miseries  of  violence,  poverty,  and  servitude,  they 
become  to  the  victims  of  their  tyranny,  what  the  sun  would  be 
to  men,  were  its  rays  raised  to  a  scorching  heat.  The  symbol 
denotes,  therefore,  that  the  rulers  of  the  people  on  whom  the 
judgments  foreshown  by  the  former  vials  chiefly  fell,  were  to  be- 
come armed  with  extraordinary  and  destructive  powers,  and  em- 
ploy them  in  the  most  violent  and  insupportable  oppression  ; 
and  that  the  victims  of  their  tyranny  would  blaspheme  the  name 
of  God,  who  appoints  those  sufferings  in  punishment  of  their 
crimes  against  him,  and  not  change  to  give  him  glory. 

The  extraordinary  powers  with  which  the  revolutionary  rulers 


THE  FOURTH  VIAL.  483 

of  France  became  armed,  and  the  oppressions  with  which  they 
scorched  and  devoured  that  people  through  a  period  of  more  than 
twenty  years,  present  a  signal  counterpart  to  the  symbol.  Im- 
mediately after  the  declaration  of  war  in  1792,  they  assumed  and 
began  to  exercise  the  most  absolute  and  despotic  sway  over  the 
persons  and  property  of  the  people.  The  whole  of  the  males  ca- 
pable of  bearing  arms,  of  the  ages  from  twenty  to  forty-five,  were 
rendered  subject  to  military  conscription,  and  many  hundreds  of 
thousands  forced  into  the  army.  A  host  of  commissioners  ap- 
pointed to  collect  materials  for  the  war,  provisions,  and  revenue, 
were  invested  with  authority  to  seize  whatever  property  they 
pleased  for  the  public  service,  and  exercised  their  power  in  the 
most  wanton  and  oppressive  manner.  They  who  were  thus  robbed 
of  their  money,  their  merchandise,  their  cattle,  their  grain,  their  fur- 
niture, and  every  description  of  effects,  were  compelled  to  accept 
for  payment,  the  paper  currency  of  the  government  at  par,  though 
wholly  irredeemable,  and  much  of  the  time  worth  but  fifteen,  ten, 
five,  and  even  a  lower  per  cent.  A  maximum,  or  extreme  of  prices 
for  all  kinds  of  produce  and  merchandise  was  fixed  by  law,  and 
all  parties  constrained  under  penalty  of  death,  to  sell  at  those 
rates  for  the  depreciated  national  paper.  That  currency  was  made 
a  legal  tender  in  all  transactions  between  citizens,  and  between 
the  treasury  and  those  in  the  public  service,  by  which  creditors 
were  defrauded  of  their  dues,  laborers  of  their  wages,  and  the 
officers  and  soldiers  of  their  stipends.  A  war  of  plunder,  con- 
fiscation, and  slaughter  was  waged  against  the  rich  from  mere 
envy  and  avarice,  and  thousands  of  families  reduced  from  afflu- 
ence to  beggary.^  Extra  loans  and  contributions  were  exacted 
from  the  wealthy  without  any  equivalent,  and  the  creditors  of  the 
government  at  length,  by  laws  compelling  them  to  surrender  a 
portion  of  their  claims,  and  by  the  national  bankruptcy,  defraud- 
ed wholly  of  their  dues,  amounting  to  several  thousands  of  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  A  vast  array  of  spies  and  cut-throats  was  or- 
ganized throughout  the  kingdom,  whose  ofl&ce  was  to  watch,  in- 
timidate, rob,  accuse,  and  guillotine  whoever  was  obnoxious, 
and  the  property,  person,  and  life  of  every  individual  subjected 
to  the  caprice  of  millions  of  demons  inflamed  with  an  infuriate 
ambition  to  plunder,  to  torture,  and  to  destroy  whoever  was  su- 
perior to  themselves.  This  vast  S3'stem  of  oppression  reduced 
the  whole  nation  to  the  most  abject  wretchedness.  All  commer- 
cial pursuits  were  interrupted,  and  all  branches  of  industry  em- 
barrassed.    The  poor  left  without  occupation  by  the  destruction 

'  Alison's  Hist.  vol.  ii.  chap.  9. 


484  THE  FOURTH  VIAL. 

of  their  wealthy  employers,  were  reduced  to  beggary.  The  ag- 
riculturists, without  assurance  of  a  remuneration  for  their  la- 
bor, ceased  to  raise  the  requisite  supply  for  the  national  suste- 
nance. Vast  crowds  were  thence  reduced  to  the  misery  of  scar- 
city and  the  danger  of  starvation.  A  large  proportion  of  the  pop- 
ulation of  Paris  was  for  years  fed  from  the  public  magazines,  and 
suffered  all  the  horrors  of  famine.^  No  one  knew  when  he  rose 
in  the  morning,  that  he  should  not  become  the  victim  of  the  as- 
sassin, the  mob,  or  the  guillotine,  before  night.  No  one  at  night 
knew  but  he  should  be  robbed  of  his  property,  his  family,  or  his 
friends,  before  morning.  Every  species  of  misery  with  which  the 
wicked  are  ever  scourged  by  an  avenging  providence,  was  thus 
inflicted  on  the  nation  by  their  rulers,  and  in  an  extreme  degree. 
No  oppressions  of  a  whole  people  the  world  has  ever  witnessed, 
approach  this  in  severity.  The  condition,  generally,  of  even  the 
helots  of  Greece,  the  captives  and  bondmen  of  Rome,  the  serfs 
of  the  feudal  barons,  the  slaves  of  the  West  Indies,  was  one  of 
freedom,  safety,  and  happiness,  compared  to  that  of  the  French, 
thus  robbed  of  their  property,  deprived  of  the  power  of  earning  a 
subsistence,  reduced  to  starvation,  and  subjected  absolutely  in 
person  and  life,  to  the  will  of  millions  of  tyrants,  whose  aim  was 
by  oppression,  outrage,  slaughter,  and  terror,  to  stifle  every  ef- 
fort at  extrication  from  their  power,  and  quench  every  spark  of 
liberty  and  independence. 

Every  country,  also,  which  they  conquered  or  invaded,  was  de- 
vastated by  a  similar  sway,  public  and  private  property  of  every  de- 
scription grasped  with  insatiable  rapacity,  the  conquered  compelled 
to  support  and  enrich  the  conquering  armies,  their  cities  sacked, 
their  villages  destroyed,  their  cottages  burned,  their  fields  strown 
with  desolation,  and  their  families  outraged  and  slaughtered.  And 
though  its  devouring  heat  of  oppression  was  mitigated  under  the 
consular  and  imperial  rule,  the  government  continued  a  giant  des- 
potism to  the  fall  of  the  empire,  and  crushed  the  people  with  an 
iron  sway.  Yet  they  blasphemed  God  who  scourged  them  with 
those  plagues,  and  changed  not  to  give  him  glory.  So  far  from 
being  reclaimed  from  atheism  and  idolatry,  they  continued  after 
the  example  of  the  national  legislature  in  the  early  years  of  the 
revolution,  to  deny  his  existence,  disown  all  responsibility  to  him, 
or  claim  his  sanction  of  their  crimes.  Not  the  slightest  indica- 
tion of  a  change  of  principles  appeared,  however  scorched  by  mis- 
ery, no  deprecation  of  the  wrath  of  God  was  uttered,  no  acknowl- 
edgment of  his  righteousness,  no  recognition  of  his  sway ;  and 

'  Alison's  Hist.  vol.  ii.  chap.  15. 


THE  FIFTH  VIAL.  485 

they  are  still  a  nation  of  infidels  and  apostates.  Thus  the  sym- 
bol met,  in  every  respect,  in  rulers  and  people,  a  terrific  fulfil- 
ment. 

Mr.  Jurieu  regarded  the  sun  as  the  symbol  of  the  antichristian 
empire,  and  its  scorching  heat  as  denoting  the  exorbitant  author- 
ity and  oppressive  sway  of  the  papacy,  from  the  eleventh  to  the 
fourteenth  century.  But  tiiat  is  to  confound  the  ecclesiastical 
with  the  civil  v\rorld.  The  sun  is  the  symbol  of  the  chief  rulers 
of  the  political  empire,  and  the  agency  which  its  scorching  men 
symbolizes,  affects  them  in  their  relations  as  vassals  of  the  beast, 
not  as  followers  of  the  false  prophet. 

Cocceius  exhibits  the  sun  as  the  Scriptures,  the  increase  of  its 
heat  as  the  clearer  manifestation  of  their  teachings,  and  the  tor- 
ture it  occasioned  as  the  sense  of  guilt  and  desperation  which  the 
truth  awakens  in  the  impenitent ;  and  regards  it  as  denoting  the 
irritation  of  the  Catholics  under  the  proclamation  of  the  gospel  by 
the  Waldenses.  But  that  is  not  in  accordance  with  the  symbol. 
The  word  of  God  was  not  to  the  Catholics  of  that  age,  what  the 
sun  is  to  the  natural  world  ;  nor  is  the  sun  the  symbol  of  the 
Scriptures,  but  of  the  supreme  civil  powers  in  an  empire. 

Mr.  Cuninghame,  Mr.  Keith,  and  many  recent  writers,  inter- 
pret the  symbol  of  the  oppressions  that  sprung  from  the  French 
revolution  ;  Mr.  Faber  of  those  only  of  Bonaparte  after  his  ele- 
vation to  the  throne  as  emperor. 


SECTION  XLV. 
CHAPTER   XVI.     10,  11. 

THE    FIFTH    VIAL. 


And  the  fifth  poured  his  vial  on  the  throne  of  the  wild  beast,  and 
its  kingdom  was  darkened.  And  they  gnawed  their  tongues  for  pain, 
and  blasphemed  the  God  of  heaven  for  their  pains  and  for  their  ul- 
cers, and  changed  not  from  their  works. 

The  ascription  of  a  throne  and  a  kingdom  to  the  wild  beast, 
shows  that  that  monster  is  the  symbol  of  the  rulers  of  an  empire. 
The  effect  of  the  vial  on  the  throne  is  not  depicted,  but  only  its 
consequence  to  the  kingdom.  It  was  its  subversion  however, 
doubtless,  and  thence  the  darkening  of  the  kingdom,  by  the  hu- 
miliation of  its  power,  the  obscuration  of  its  glory,  and  the  ex- 


486  THE  FIFTH  VIAL. 

tinction  of  its  hopes.  The  action  of  the  survivors  is  such  as 
might  naturally  spring  from  the  disappointment,  the  chagrin,  the 
despair,  and  the  rage  excited  by  such  a  catastrophe.  They 
gnawed  their  tongues  for  pain,  and  continued  to  blaspheme  God 
by  refusing  to  acknowledge  his  hand  in  their  overthrow,  and  de- 
nying his  existence.  That  they  blasphemed  him  for  their  pains, 
denotes  their  denial  of  the  justice  of  the  retributions  with  which 
their  crimes  were  requited,  and  denunciation  of  them  as  a  violation 
of  their  rights.  That  they  blasphemed  for  the  ulcers  excited  by 
the  first  vial,  denotes  both  that  they  were  the  people  on  whom 
that  vial  chiefly  fell,  and  that  against  their  wishes  they  were  now 
again  to  be  subjected  to  the  dynasty,  to  a  sense  of  whose  tortu- 
ring oppressions  they  were  then  aroused. 

They  are  the  French  therefore,  and  the  event  indicated  by  the 
symbol,  is  the  subversion  of  the  imperial  throne  and  re-establish- 
ment of  the  Bourbon  dynasty  in  1814  and  1815.  All  the  con- 
ditions of  the  symbol  were  fulfilled  in  the  conquest  of  France  at 
that  period  by  the  allied  armies,  expulsion  of  Bonaparte,  and 
restoration  of  the  ancient  line  of  kings.  The  kingdom  was  felt 
to  be  shrouded  in  darkness,  its  power  remedilessly  broken,  its 
glory  eclipsed,  its  prospects  of  greatness  extinguished.  The 
new  nobility,  the  officers  of  government,  the  soldiers,  the  people 
generally,  were  devoured  with  chagrin,  and  blasphemed  God 
with  an  atheist  impiety,  by  the  continued  disavowal  of  his  do- 
minion, justification  and  boast  of  their  crimes,  and  denial  of  their 
merit  of  such  retribution.  The  Bourbon  dynasty  was  again 
forced  on  them  by  the  conquering  powers,  and  revived  the  tor- 
turing sense  of  their  degradation,  the  violent  detestation  of  that 
line,  and  the  infuriate  passion  for  unrestrained  liberty,  denoted  by 
the  ulcers,  with  which  they  had  been  smitten  under  the  first  vial. 
And  they  changed  from  none  of  their  works.  The  same  law- 
lessness, the  same  rapacity,  the  same  thirst  of  blood,  the  same 
ambition  of  conquest,  the  same  spirit  of  tyranny,  the  same  auda- 
cious atheism,  as  had  marked  them  through  the  whole  career  of 
the  revolution  and  the  wars  to  which  it  gave  birth,  characterized 
them  still. 

Mr.  Jurieu  interprets  the  throne  of  the  wild  beast  of  Rome, 
and  the  darkening  of  its  kingdom,  of  the  removal  of  the  popes 
from  that  city  to  Avignon  in  the  fourteenth  century.  But  that  is 
to  confound  the  head  of  the  two-horned  beast  and  of  the  image, 
with  the  wild  beast  of  ten  horns  ;  and  make  the  apostate  Roman 
hierarchy  the  object  of  the  judgment,  in  place  of  the  supreme 
civil  and  military  power  of  the  empire. 


THE  FIFTH  VIAL.  487 

Cocceius  exhibits  the  throne  of  the  wild  beast  as  tlie  throne 
of  the  pope,  and  regards  the  symbol  as  denoting  the  rejection  of 
his  authority  and  denunciation  of  him  as  antichrist  by  the  Prot- 
estants in  the  sixteenth  century,  which  is  open  to  similar  objec- 
tions. 

Mr.  Cuninghame  regards  the  throne  as  a  symbol,  not  of  the 
station  of  a  monarch,  the  chief  of  the  great  combination  denoted 
by  the  wild  beast,  but  of  the  power,  authority,  and  councils  of  an 
empire,  and  interprets  the  darkening  of  the  kingdoms  chiefly  of 
the  false  policy  of  the  French,  Austrian,  and  English  rulers,  by 
which  they  and  their  people  became  involved  in  the  calamities 
that  marked  and  followed  the  wars  that  sprung  from  the  French 
revolution.  But  that  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  symbol.  It  is 
to  make  the  throne  the  representative  of  agencies,  instead  of  the 
station  of  an  agent,  and  is  therefore  against  analogy,  as  agencies 
alone  can  symbolize  agencies.  As  the  sun  is  the  symbol  of  the 
supreme  rulers  of  the  empire,  as  under  the  fourth  vial,  a  change 
in  them  by  which  the  empire  becomes  darkened,  must  be  their 
expulsion  from  their  station,  or  the  discontinuance  of  their  office  ; 
as  a  change  in  the  sun  by  which  the  earth  should  at  mid-day 
become  darkened,  would  be  a  discontinuance  of  its  rays,  not 
their  receiving  a  wrong  direction.  The  overthrow  accordingly 
of  the  official  station  of  an  agent,  presents  an  apt  symbolization 
of  the  annihilation  of  his  office,  and  dissolution  of  the  form  of 
government  of  which  he  was  the  head,  but  exhibits  no  analogy 
to  his  psing  his  power  by  misjudgment  to  the  injury  of  himself 
or  his  subjects. 

Mr.  Elliott  interprets  the  symbol  of  the  spoliation  of  the  pro- 
perty of  the  Catholic  church  by  the  French,  Germans,  Spaniards, 
and  Portuguese,  during  the  wars  of  the  revolution  and  temporary 
abolition  by  Bonaparte  of  the  papal  civil  power.  But  that  is  to 
confound  both  the  two-horned  wild  beast  and  the  image,  with  the 
wild  beast  of  seven  heads  and  ten  horns.  The  wild  beast  on 
whose  throne  the  vial  was  poured,  and  whose  kingdom  was 
darkened,  is  the  symbol  of  the  civil  rulers  of  the  empire,  not  of 
the  Catholic  hierarchies,  nor  the  false  prophet. 

Mr.  Faber  interprets  the  symbol  of  the  dethronement  of  the 
French  emperor. 


488  THE  SIXTH  VIAL. 

SECTION  XLVI. 

CHAPTER   XVI.     12. 

THE  SIXTH  VIAL. 

And  the  sixth  poured  his  vial  on  the  great  river  Euphrates.  And 
its  water  was  dried,  that  the  way  might  be  prepared  of  the  kings 
who  are  from  the  sun's  rising. 

It  wsLS  by  a  diversion  of  the  water  of  the  Euphrates  from  its 
channel,  that  the  way  was  prepared  for  the  entrance  beneath  the 
walls  of  Babylon  of  the  leaders  of  the  Medes  and  Persians  who 
were  from  the  east,  and  the  subversion  of  her  empire.  The 
river  is  here  used  as  a  symbol  in  an  analogous  relation.  It  is  by 
tiie  diversion  or  exhaustion  of  something  having  a  likeness  of  Eu- 
phrates to  Babylon,  that  the  way  is  to  be  prepared  for  the  assault 
and  overthrow  of  some  resembling  kingdom.  But  great  Babylon, 
the  city  of  which  the  literal  Babylon  is  the  symbol,  is  the  body  of 
rulers  and  teachers  of  the  churches  of  the  ten  kingdoms  erected 
into  hierarchies,  and  nationalized  by  liieir  governments.  Her  fall  is 
to  be  a  dejection  from  her  station  as  civilly  established,  deprivation 
of  peculiar  privileges,  and  subjection  to  the  condition  of  a  vassal 
of  those  governments.  The  evaporation  of  her  river  is  doubtless 
therefore  to  be  the  alienation  and  withdrawment  from  her  of  her 
supporters,  by  the  dissipation  of  their  faith  in  her  pretensions, 
awe  of  her  authority,  and  approbation  of  her  rule,  by  which  they 
have  been  kept  in  subjection.  Tlie  kings  from  the  sun's  rising 
are  they  who,  after  having  produced  that  alienation  of  her  sup- 
porters, are  to  assail  and  precipitate  her  from  her  nationalization. 

This  symbol  indicates  then,  that  agencies  are  to  be  exerted  by 
which  vast  crowds  of  the  supporters  of  the  nationalized  hierar- 
chies are  to  be  withdrawn  from  them ;  the  reasons  for  their  sup- 
port in  that  relation  by  the  civil  government,  whether  they  lie  in 
the  faith  of  the  people,  or  the  policy  of  the  rulers,  to  be  removed  ; 
and  the  general  mind  prepared  for  their  discontinuance  as  estab- 
lishments. 

This  vial  has  undoubtedly  already  begun  to  be  poured,  and  the 
agents  who  are  to  exhaust  the  great  Euphrates  of  the  apostate 
Babylon  commenced  their  office.  The  alienation  of  the  people 
generally  from  the  national  churches  on  the  continent,  the  with- 
drawment of  a  large  body  from  the  Scottish  church  and  the  re- 
signation of  their  office  by  a  portion  of  the  ministers  of  the  Can- 


THE   SIXTH  VIAL,  489 

ton  de  Vaud  in  Switzerland,  are  events  that  accord  with  the 
symbohzation,  and  the  commencement  of  movements  probably 
that  are  at  length  to  reduce  tiie  mighty  current  that  has  hitherto 
run  beneath  the  walls  of  the  great  city,  to  a  shallow  stream  or 
stagnant  pool,  as  Euphrates  became  by  the  diversion  of  its  waters 
into  other  channels. 

The  views  of  those  seceders,  and  the  attitude  they  assume 
towards  the  nationalized  churches  from  which  they  have  with 
drawn,  are  wholly  unlike  those  that  are  to  distinguish  the  sealed. 
The  Scotch  withdrew  not  from  a  disapprobation  of  the  nationali- 
zation of  the  church,  but  merely  from  dislike  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  civil  government  exercised  its  control  of  the  establish- 
ment. It  was  for  a  similar  reason  that  the  Swiss  resigned  their 
stations  ;  and  the  German  seceders  withdrew  not  from  any  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  relation  of  the  church  to  the  civil  govern- 
ment, but  from  a  disapproval  of  the  superstitions,  idolatries,  and 
tyranny  of  the  hierarchies  themselves. 

Mr.  Brightman  interprets  the  symbol  of  the  removal  of  impedi- 
ments to  the  restoration  of  the  Jews.  But  that  is  in  contradic- 
tion to  the  symbol.  As  the  drying  of  Euphrates  by  Cyrus  was 
in  order  to  the  conquest  of  Babylon,  so  the  exertion  of  an  analo- 
gous agency  on  the  Jews,  would  be  in  order  to  their  subjection 
to  greater  calamities,  not  to  their  restoration  to  their  ancient  land, 
and  re-estabhshment  under  a  national  government.  The  great 
obstacle  moreover  to  their  restoration,  is  their  own  unbelief;  not 
the  power  of  a  hostile  people.  But  what  analogy  is  there  be- 
tween unbelief  and  a  river  which  is  a  source  of  sustenance  and 
means  of  defence  to  a  besieged  city  1  There  is  no  indication  in 
the  Scriptures  that  they  are  to  regain  their  ancient  land  by  war 
and  conquest,  nor  by  the  subversion  of  mystical  Babylon.  They 
are  not  the  agents  who  are  to  cause  the  fall  of  that  combination 
of  hierarchies. 

Mr.  Mede,  Mr.  Faber,  Mr.  Cuninghame,  Mr.  Elliott,  and  oth- 
ers, regard  the  drying  of  Euphrates  as  denoting  the  gradual  de- 
cay of  the  Turkish  empire  in  population,  wealth,  and  power. 
But  that  is  equally  witliout  analogy.  That  empire  sustains  no 
relation  to  the  nationalized  churches  of  Europe,  like  that  of  Eu- 
phrates to  ancient  Babylon.  It  neither  is,  nor  ever  has  been  the 
means  of  supporting  them  in  their  station  as  civil  establishments. 
It  is  not  conceivable  that  its  decay  should  necessarily  involve 
their  dejection  from  that  station.  Its  relations  with  professors 
of  Christianity  are  not  with  those  hierarchies,  but  with  the 
Greek,  the  Armenian,  the  Maronite,  and  other  eastern  churches 

62 


490  THE  UNCLEAN    SPIRITS. 

Cocceius  expounds  Babylon  of  the  civil  empire,  and  regards 
the  drying  of  Euphrates  as  fulfilled  in  the  exhaustion  of  the  Span- 
ish and  French  in  their  wars  with  each  other,  and  with  the  Prot- 
estants in  the  sixteenth  century.  But  that  is  to  make  the  repre- 
sentative and  thing  represented  of  the  same  species.  Babylon 
is  not  the  symbol  of  a  civil  power,  like  that  of  which  it  was  the 
seat,  but  of  a  combination  of  nationalized  hierarchies. 


SECTION   XLVII. 

CHAPTER    XVI.    13-16. 
THE  UNCLEAN  SPIRITS. 


And  I  saw  from  the  mouth  of  the  dragon,  and  from  the  mouth  of 
the  wild  beast,  and  from  the  mouth  of  the  false  prophet,  three  un- 
clean spirits  as  frogs  ;  for  they  are  spirits  of  demons  working  won- 
ders, that  go  to  the  kings  of  the  whole  world  to  gather  them  to  the 
battle  of  that  great  day  of  God  Almighty.  Behold  I  come  as  a  thief. 
Blessed  is  he  who  watches,  and  keeps  his  garments,  that  he  may  not 
walk  naked,  and  they  may  see  his  shame.  And  they  gathered  them 
in  the  place  which  is  called  in  Hebrew  Armageddon. 

Unclean  demon  spirits  are  demons  or  devils,  which  enter  into 
human  beings,  and  excite  them  to  lawless  appetite  and  passion. 
But  these  spirits  were  clothed  in  forms,  as  appears  from  their 
being  compared  to  frogs  ; — hideous,  grovelling,  noisy,  and  am- 
phibious. The  dragon  is  also  a  bodied  shape,  as  appears  from 
the  ascription  to  it  of  a  mouth,  and  procedure  from  it  of  a  ma- 
terial form.  It  is  the  symbol  therefore  of  the  rulers  of  the  east- 
ern Roman  empire  supporting  an  apostate  church,  and  arrogating 
the  right  of  dictating  the  religion  of  their  subjects  ;  and  implies 
that  at  the  period  of  this  event,  a  government  is  to  subsist  in 
Thrace  or  that  vicinity,  that  shall  nationalize  the  religion  of  that 
empire,  as  under  its  last  imperial  head.  The  wild  beast  is  the 
symbol  of  the  civil  rulers  of  the  kingdoms  of  the  western  Ro- 
man empire,  and  the  false  prophet  of  the  ecclesiastic  and  civil 
hierarchy  of  the  papal  states.  The  spirits  work  wonders,  as  the 
false  prophet  professes  to  work  miracles.  They  are  to  be  eccle- 
siastics, therefore,  and  to  claim  a  divine  sanction  to  their  mission. 
They  go  to  the  kings  of  the  whole  Roman  world  to  gather  them 


THE   UNCLEAN   SPIRITS.  491 

to  the  battle  of  that  great  day  of  God,  That  great  day  is  the 
day  when  the  Son  of  God  shall  visibly  descend  and  cast  the  wild 
beast  and  false  prophet  into  the  lake  of  fire,  and  destroy  the  kings 
and  their  armies.  As  the  kmgs  of  the  world  are  distinguished 
from  the  wild  beast,  which  is  the  symbol  of  the  civil  rulers  of 
the  western  Roman  empire,  they  are  the  kings  or  chiefs  of  other 
nations  and  empires,  in  Avhich  there  are  worshippers  of  God,  as 
of  the  north  and  east  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Northern  Africa.  The 
gathering  of  the  antichristian  powers  to  the  battle  of  that  day, 
is  to  be  their  last  gathering  to  oppose  the  kingdom  of  the  Re- 
deemer. 

As  the  spirits  symbolize  men  and  ecclesiastics,  and  go  from 
the  mouth  of  the  three  great  antichristian  powers,  they  denote 
men  who  are  to  be  prompted  by  the  principles  and  passions  that 
distinguish  those  usurping  and  apostate  combinations,  are  to  be 
sent  forth  by  them,  and  to  go  to  excite  in  the  rulers  of  the  other 
kingdoms,  the  same  hostility  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ  as  reigns 
in  the  breast  of  the  dragon,  the  wild  beast,  and  the  false  prophet. 
They  are  to  induce  the  kings  of  the  whole  world  to  unite  in  a 
war  to  prevent  the  establishment  of  Christ's  kingdom,  and  to  as- 
semble them  at  the  place  which  is  in  Hebrew  called  Armaged- 
don ;  a  name  which,  whether  drawn,  as  some  assume,  from  Me- 
geddo,  the  plain  at  the  foot  of  Carmel,  on  which  Barak  conquered 
8isera  and  his  army,  or  given  to  the  scene  from  the  victory 
which  the  Redeemer  is  there  to  gain  over  them,  denotes  the  place 
of  their  destruction.  As  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  they  are  to 
assemble  with  a  purpose  of  contending  directly  with  the  Al- 
mighty Avenger  at  his  advent,  and  there  is  no  intimation  that  the 
true  Avorshippers  are  to  unite  and  attempt  a  defence  of  them- 
selves by  violence,  nor  is  such  a  supposition  compatible  with 
the  character  of  witnesses  who  assail  their  enemies  only  with  the 
fire  of  their  testimony,  the  aim  probably  of  the  kings  is  to  be  to 
refute  the  faith  of  believers  in  an  indirect  manner,  as  by  the 
conquest  of  Jerusalem,  or  some  other  act,  which  shall  be  deemed 
to  demonstrate  that  their  expectation  of  the  advent  of  Christ  is 
ill-founded.  As  this  conspiracy  is  immediately  to  precede  his 
advent,  it  is  to  be  subsequent  to  the  drying  of  Euphrates,  the 
slaughter  and  resurrection  of  the  witnesses,  and  the  fall  of 
great  Babylon  ;  and  is  to  be  at  the  period  doubtless  of  that  last 
persecution  of  the  saints,  which  is  to  follow  the  final  denuncia- 
tion of  vengeance  on  the  worshippers  of  the  wild  beast  and  its 
image,  chap.  xiv.  9-14.  Behold,  I  come  as  a  thief.  Blessed  is 
he  who  watches,  and  keeps  his  garments,  that  he  may  not  walk 


492  THE  SEVENTH  VIAL. 

naked,  and  they  may  see  his  shame  ;  an  intimation  that  the  peo- 
ple of  God  will  be  expecting  his  advent,  but  the  w^orld  at  large 
taken  by  surprise  ;  and  that  all  who  are  not  watching  and  ready 
for  the  dread  event,  will  be  exposed  by  his  appearing  to  public 
disgrace. 

Mr.  Cuninghame  regards  the  three  spirits  as  the  spirit  of  athe- 
ism, despotism,  and  popery  ;  and  Mr.  Elliott  as  the  spirit  of 
infidelity,  popery,  and  "  ultra  high  churchism."  But  that  is  to 
exhibit  them  as  characteristics  of  actors,  not  as  agents,  and  is 
therefore  against  the  law  of  symbolization.  The  spirits  are  bodied 
beings,  like  frogs  ;  and  the  symbols  therefore  of  men,  not  of 
their  principles  or  aims.  Each  of  those  writers  assumes  also 
that  they  are  to  employ  themselves  in  the  propagation  of  athe 
ism,  or  infidelity,  anarchy,  and  popery.  The  representation, 
however,  of  the  prophecy  is,  that  they  go  to  the  kings  to  gather 
them  together  to  battle  with  the  Son  of  God,  and  those  who  de- 
scend with  him  from  heaven ;  which  implies  that  they  are  to 
unite  in  a  formal  endeavor  to  prevent  the  establishment  of  his 
throne  on  the  earth,  and  perhaps  by  the  occupation  of  Judea, 
or  some  other  act,  that  shall  be  deemed  to  involve  a  refutation 
of  the  prophecy  of  his  millennial  reign. 


SECTION   XLVIII. 

CHAPTER    XVI.    17-21. 
THE   SEVENTH  VIAL. 


And  the  seventh  poured  his  vial  into  the  air,  and  a  great  voice 
came  from  the  temple,  from  the  throne,  saying,  It  is  done.  And 
there  vi^ere  lightnings,  and  voices,  and  thunders,  and  there  was  a 
great  earthquake.  The  like  had  not  been  since  men  were  on  the  earth, 
such  an  earthquake,  so  great.  And  the  great  city  went  into  three 
parts,  and  the  cities  of  the  nations  fell.  And  great  Babylon  was 
remembered  before  God,  to  give  to  her  the  cup  of  the  wine  of  the 
vehemence  of  his  indignation.  And  every  island  fled,  and  moun- 
tains were  not  found.  And  hail  great  in  weight  as  talents  descend- 
ed from  heaven  on  the  men.  And  the  men  blasphemed  God  for  the 
stroke  of  the  hail,  for  its  stroke  was  very  great. 

The  other  vials  were  poured  on  different  parts  of  the  symbolic 
world — the  land,  the  sea,  the  rivers,  the  sun,  the  throne  of  the 


THE  SEVENTH  VIAL.  493 

wild  beast,  the  Euphrates,  and  the  effect  of  each  limited  to  ns 
peculiar  scene.  That  this  is  to  be  poured  into  the  air  which 
envelops  the  globe,  indicates  that  the  great  changes  which  fol- 
low it  are  not  to  be  circumscribed  within  the  western  Roman 
empire,  but  to  extend  to  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth.  Ligiit- 
nings,  voices,  and  thunders,  are  symbols  of  the  velienient  thoughts 
and  passionate  expressions  of  multitudes,  occasioned  by  the 
sudden  discovery  of  momentous  truth.  An  earthquake  denotes 
a  civil  revolution,  in  which  the  whole  surface  of  society  is  thrown 
into  commotion  and  disorder,  and  ancient  political  institutions 
shaken  down.  This  convulsion,  which  is  to  transcend  in  vio- 
lence all  that  had  preceded  it,  is  doubtless  the  same  as  that 
which  is  symbolized  under  the  sixth  seal,  and  is  to  extend  to 
all  the  governments  of  the  earth.  Great  Babylon,  which  had 
previously  fallen,  is  then  to  separate  into  three  parts.  The 
apostate  hierarchies  are  not  only  to  survive  their  disjunction  as 
establishments  from  the  civil  governments,  but  those  govern- 
ments themselves,  and  to  divide  into  three  parties — not  geo- 
graphically, which  were  not  in  accordance  with  analogy — but  in 
respect  to  leaders,  principle,  or  policy.  The  cities  of  the  na- 
tions, in  contradistinction  from  the  great  city,  are  the  hierarcliies 
of  the  nations  without  the  ten  kingdoms,  as  the  Russian,  the 
Greek,  the  Armenian,  the  Syrian.  They  also  are  then  to  fall. 
God  is  then  to  pour  on  great  Babylon  that  storm  of  wrath  by 
which  she  is  to  be  utterly  destroyed.  Every  smaller  combina- 
tion of  men  symbolized  by  the  islands,  is  to  be  dissolved,  and 
mighty  governments,  denoted  by  mountains,  vanish  from  exist- 
ence. A  hail-storm  is  a  symbol  of  sudden  and  resistless  strokes, 
by  which,  in  a  violent  political  revolution,  men  are  smitten  down 
from  dignity,  independence,  and  happiness,  to  helplessness,  vas- 
salage, and  ruin  ;  as  such  a  storm  strips  the  leaves  and  fruits 
from  the  trees,  and  dashes  down  the  crops  of  grass  and  grain. 
Such  a  devastating  tempest  is  to  beat  on  the  men  who  belong  to 
the  train  of  antichrist,  and  they  are  to  blaspheme  God  because 
of  the  greatness  of  their  calamities.  The  revolutions  and  con- 
tests indicated  by  these  symbols,  are  doubtless  to  follow  the 
advent  of  the  Son  of  God  to  raise  the  saints  from  death,  to  pre- 
cede the  vintage,  and  perhaps  the  harvest,  and  to  occupy  a  con- 
siderable period. 


494  THE  WOMAN,  THE  GREAT  BABYLON, 


SECTION  XLIX. 
CHAPTER    XVII.    1-18. 

THE    WOMAN,    THE    GREAT    BABYLON,    THE    TEN-HORNED    WILD 
BEAST,    AND    THE    KINGS. 

And  one  of  tlie  seven  angels  who  held  the  seven  vials,  came  and 
talked  with  me,  saying,  Come,  I  will  show  thee  the  judgment  of  the 
great  harlot,  who  sits  at  the  many  waters,  with  whom  the  kings  of 
the  earth  committed  fornication,  and  they  who  dwell  on  the  earth 
have  been  drunk  with  the  wine  of  her  fornication.  And  he  led  me 
in  Spirit  into  a  desert ;  and  I  saw  a  woman  seated  on  a  scarlet  wild 
beast,  full  of  names  of  blasphemy,  having  seven  heads  and  ten 
horns.  And  the  woman  was  robed  in  purple  and  scarlet,  and  decked 
with  gold,  and  precious  stone,  and  pearls  ;  having  a  golden  cup  in 
her  hand  full  of  abominations  and  the  impurities  of  her  fornication, 
and  on  her  forehead  a  name  written  ; — Mystery,  the  great  Babylon, 
the  mother  of  harlots  and  abominations  of  the  earth.  And  I  saw 
the  woman  drunk  with  the  blood  of  the  saints,  and  with  the  blood 
of  the  witnesses  of  Jesus.  And  I  wondered,  seeing  her,  with  great 
wonder.  And  the  angel  said  to  me,  Why  dost  thou  wonder  ?  I 
will  tell  thee  the  mystery  of  the  woman,  and  of  the  wild  beast  that 
bears  her,  which  has  the  seven  heads  and  ten  horns.  The  wild 
beast  which  thou  didst  see,  was,  and  is  not,  and  is  about  to  ascend 
from  the  abyss,  and  go  to  perdition.  And  they  who  dwell  on  the 
earth,  whose  names  are  not  written  in  the  book  of  life  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  shall  wonder,  seeing  the  wild  beast,  that  it 
was,  and  is  not,  and  yet  is.  Here  is  the  mind  that  has  wisdom. 
The  seven  heads  are  seven  mountains  where  the  woman  sits  on 
them,  and  are  seven  kings.  Five  have  fallen,  one  is,  the  other  has 
not  yet  come,  and  when  it  has  come  it  must  continue  a  short  time. 
And  the  wild  beast,  which  was  and  is  not,  is  itself  also  an  eighth, 
and  is  of  the  seven,  and  goes  to  perdition.  And  the  ten  horns 
which  thou  didst  see  are  ten  kings  who  have  not  yet  received  a 
kingdom,  but  receive  power  as  kings  in  one  hour  with  the  wild 
beast.  They  have  one  mind,  and  give  their  power  and  authority  to 
the  wild  beast.  They  shall  make  war  with  the  Lamb,  and  the 
Lamb  shall  overcome  them,  for  he  is  Lord  of  lords  and  King  of 
kings,  and  they  who  are  with  him  are  called,  and  chosen,  and  faith- 
ful. And  he  said  to  me.  The  waters  which  thou  didst  see  where 
the  harlot  sits,  are  peoples,  and  multitudes,  and  nations,  and  tongues. 


-xlE  TEN-HORNED  WILD  BEAST,   AND  THE  KINGS.  495 

And  the  ten  horns  which  thou  didst  see  and  the  wild  beast,  they 
shall  hate  the  harlot,  and  make  her  desolate,  and  naked,  and  eat  her 
flesh,  and  burn  her  with  fire  :  For  God  has  put  into  their  hearts  to 
do  his  will,  and  to  pursue  one  counsel,  and  to  give  their  kingdom  to 
the  wild  beast,  until  the  words  of  God  shall  be  fulfilled.  And  the 
woman  whom  thou  didst  see,  is  the  great  city  which  has  empire 
over  the  kings  of  the  earth. 

It  is  apparent  from  the  representation,  that  the  woman  had 
already  been  beheld  by  the  apostle  sitting  where  there  were 
seven  mountains  and  many  waters  ;  that  she  was  exhibited  in 
that  scene  in  a  vision  whicli  is  not  recorded,  and  for  the  reason, 
doubtless,  that  her  agency  with  the  kings,  who  were  exhibited  in 
connection  with  her,  was  unsuitable  for  description.  The  scene 
was  the  site  of  Rome.  The  seven  heights  were  the  seven  hills 
of  that  city,  and  they  were  symbols  of  the  seven  kinds  of  rulers 
who  exercised  the  government  of  the  ancient  empire,  as  is 
shown  by  the  angel's  interpretation,  who  exhibits  them  as  the 
same  as  the  seven  heads  of  the  wild  beast.  The  hills  were 
surrounded  by  many  waters,  which  are  symbols  of  the  peoples, 
and  multitudes,  and  nations,  and  tongues  of  the  Roman  empire, 
after  the  emergence  of  the  ten  kingdoms,  as  is  shown  by  their 
cotemporaneousness  with  the  woman,  during  the  agency  as- 
cribed, to  her,  which  she  exerted  subsequently  to  the  establish- 
ment of  those  kingdoms.  The  woman  seated  where  the  hills 
were  and  the  waters,  symbolized  the  great  Babylon,  the  national- 
ized hierarchies  of  the  apostate  church,  and  actions  are  ascribed 
to  her  which  render  it  apparent  that  the  kings  of  the  earth  were 
also  exhibited  as  uniting  with  her  in  her  idolatry.  The  spectacle, 
therefore,  like  the  wild  beast  on  which  she  is  now  exhibited,  rep- 
resented the  ancient  rulers  of  the  empire  as  well  as  its  kings  in 
its  last  form  ;  and  in  addition,  by  the  waters,  symbolized  their 
subjects  in  their  relations  to  the  harlot ;  and  its  object  was  to 
represent  her  in  her  union  with  the  kings  in  promoting  idolatry, 
and  her  agency  in  seducing  the  people  to  join  in  their  worship. 
Her  relation  to  the  kings  and  people,  and  her  character  as  an 
idolatress,  having  thus  already  been  exhibited  to  the  apostle,  the 
angel  now  called  him  to  another  spectacle,  in  wiiich  she  is  rep- 
resented in  her  relations  to  tiie  rulers,  first  as  her  supporters, 
and  finally  as  her  destroyers.  The  wild  beast,  on  which  she  is 
borne,  was,  and  is  not,  and  yet  is.  It  was,  as  the  successions 
of  rulers  which  it  symbolized  in  the  form  in  Avhich  it  rose  from 
the  sea,  chapter  xiii.  1,  had  been,  but  were  not  at  the  period 
indicated  by  the  vision,  as  in  that  form  it  had  gone  into  hades. 


496  THE  TVOMAN,  THE  GKEAT  BABYLON. 

It  is  not,  as  the  supreme  government  is  no  longer  exercised  either 
by  a  head,  or  by  ten  independent  kings;  and  yet  it  still  is  in 
another  form,  as  the  eighth  king  and  the  ten  kings  who  give  him 
their  power,  now  exert  a  sway  essentially  the  same  as  that  of 
the  beast  in  its  first  shajie ;  maintaining  the  laws  of  the  ancient 
empire  in  a  large  degree ;  uniting  in  supporting  the  same  religion, 
as  that  which  the  rulers  denoted  by  the  seventh  head  supported ; 
and,  like  those  rulers,  usurping  the  prerogatives  of  God,  nation- 
alizing the  church,  and  assuming  to  determine  by  their  will  the 
rehgious  duties  of  their  subjects.  That  it  is  in  this  that  it  is  still 
the  wild  beast,  is  seen  from  the  representation  that  it  is  by  the 
kings  having  one  counsel  and  giving  their  power  to  the  eighth 
king,  that  they  give  it  to  the  beast.  They  become  a  combina- 
tion of  rulers,  and  render  their  several  governments  one,  by  ex- 
ercising their  power  under  the  eighth  king  on  the  same  princi- 
ples and  for  the  same  purposes,  for  which  the  supreme  power 
Avas  exercised  by  the  seventh  head ;  and  in  that  respect  he  is  an 
eighth  king  like  the  chiefs  denoted  by  his  seven  beads,  and  appro- 
priately symbolized  by  the  same  monster,  because  of  the  similar- 
ity of  their  assumptions,  religion,  laws,  and  conduct  towards 
God  and  his  people. 

It  is  covered  with  the  names  of  blasphemy  in  symbolization 
of  its  arrogation  of  ihe  rights  of  God,  and  assumption  of  author- 
ity over  his  legislation.  It  is  not  a  blasphemer  by  its  conquests, 
its  blood-shedding,  and  tyranny.  Names  of  blasphemy  have  no 
adaptation  to  symbolize  such  agencies,  which  have  not  God,  but 
fellow-creatures,  for  their  object.  Its  bloodiness  and  cruelty 
moreover  are  denoted  by  its  form  as  a  ferocious  wild  beast. 
But  it  blasphemes  by  setting  itself  in  the  place  of  God,  arro- 
gating his  prerogatives,  and  exacting  a  homage  that  is  due  only 
to  him.  That  it  does  in  assuming  the  right  to  dictate  the  faith 
and  worship  of  its  subjects,  legislating  over  the  laws  he  imposes 
on  them,  making  its  will  the  reason  that  they  are  to  offer  a  wor- 
ship, treating  dissent  from  its  creed  and  a  refusal  to  unite  in  the 
rites  it  enjoins,  as  a  crime  meriting  the  same  punishment  as  re- 
volt from  God,  exalting  the  authority  of  ecclesiastical  teachers 
and  rulers  above  that  of  the  Almighty,  and  all  other  acts  in 
which  it  asserts  a  dominion  over  men  in  their  relations  to  the 
creator  ; — as  in  all  those  acts  it  treats  their  relations  to  him  as 
subordinate  to  their  relations  to  itself,  and  thence  treats  him  also 
as  subordinate  in  right  and  authority  to  itself;  and  accordingly  in 
effect  denies  his  deity,  his  title  to  the  homage  which  he  demands, 
and  thence  the  rectitude  of  his  law,  and  exiiibits  him  as  an 
usurper.     Of  these  tremendous  blasphemies  the  ruleis  of  the 


THE   TEN-HORNED    WILD   BEAST,    AND   THE   KINGS.  497 

ten  kingdoms,  as  well  as  of  the  ancient  empire,  especially  those 
denoted  by  the  seventh  head,  have  been  notoriously  guilty. 

The  abyss  out  of  which  the  wild  beast  was  about  to  ascend, 
was  that  into  which  Satan  is  to  be  cast  for  the  thousand  years, 
and  sometimes  denotes  hades.  The  rise  of  the  beast  out  of  it 
implies  therefore  that  it  had  previously  sunk  there  from  the 
earth.  The  seven  heads,  like  the  seven  mountains  in  the  vision  of 
the  woman  and  the  waters,  denote  seven  kinds  of  supreme  rulers 
of  the  empire,  five  of  whom  had  already  fallen,  one  then  was,  and 
the  other  had  not  yet  come.  The  head  which  then  was,  was  the 
pagan  imperial ;  those  which  had  fiUen,  the  kingly,  the  consular,  the 
dictatorial,  the  decemviral,  the  tribunitial,'  That  which  had  not 
yet  come,  and  was  to  continue  a  short  time,  was  the  false  Christian 
imperial,  commencing  with  Constantine  in  the  year  312,  and  fall- 
ing at  the  subversion  of  the  western  empire  in  476.  The  ten  horns 
denote  the  dynasties  of  kings  who  had  not  received  a  kingdom  at 
the  period  of  the  vision,  and  were  not  to  receive  one  until  the  emer- 
gence of  the  wild  beast  from  the  abyss ;  after  the  fall  therefore, 
of  the  beast  in  its  first  form ;  but  were  to  receive  it  at  that  period, 
and  to  perpetuate  the  beast  itself  in  an  eighth  king,  by  uniting 
with  one  consent  to  exercise  a  rule  like  that  of  the  ancient  seventh 
head.  The  wild  beast  as  this  eighth  king  is  to  go  to  perdition ; 
for  the  kings  are  to  make  war  with  the  Lamb,  and  the  Lamb  is 
to  conquer  them,  because  he  is  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords, 
and  they  who  are  with  him  are  called,  and  chosen,  and  faithful. 
The  question  between  them,  therefore,  is  to  be,  as  has  already 
been  shown,  one  of  prerogatives  and  supremacy.  The  Lamb 
is  to  conquer  and  destroy  his  antagonists,  because  he  is  under  no 
such  subordination  to  them  as  they  blasphemously  assume,  in 
their  attempt  to  exalt  their  authority  above  his  ;  but  has  an  ab- 
solute and  exclusive  right  of  dominion  over  lords  and  kings  as 
well  as  subjects.  It  is  also  a  question  between  them  who  are 
the  true  worshippers  ;  they  who  acknowledge  and  honor  God  as 
the  only  legitimate  object  of  homage,  and  only  rightful  religious 
lawgiver ;  or  they  who  worship  the  wild  beast,  by  assenting  to 
its  blasphemous  usurpations  ;  and  the  Lamb  is  to  conquer,  be- 
cause they  who  are  with  him  have  paid  the  homage  that  accords 
with  his  rights,  and  are  the  worshippers  whom  he  calls,  whom 
he  chooses,  and  who  by  their  fidelity  give  proof  of  their  meet- 
ness  for  his  acceptance. 

The  woman  seated  on  the  wild  beast  is  the  symbol  of  the 

'  Jjivii  Hist.  lib.  vi.  c.  1.     Taciti  Annal.  lib.  i.  c.  1. 
63 


498  THE  WOMAN,   THE  GREAT  Bj?BYLON, 

great  Babylon,  the  mother  of  harlots,  the  great  city  which  haa 
empire  over  the  kings  of  the  earth. 

That  empire  is  necessarily  of  a  different  nature  from  that  of 
the  kings  themselves  over  their  kingdoms  ;  and  is  thence  eccle- 
siastical, not  civil ;  and  is  exercised  by  ecclesiastical  hierarchies, 
as  they  alone  exert  or  claim  an  authoritative  sway  over  those  un- 
der their  jurisdiction.  The  station  of  the  woman  on  the  wild 
beast  denotes  that  the  combination  of  hierarchies  which  she 
symbolizes,  is  supported  by  the  rulers  whom  that  monster  rep- 
resents, and  exhibits  those  hierarchies  therefore  as  nationalized 
and  established  by  the  civil  rulers.  There  is  no  other  agency  of 
the  wild  beast  towards  the  woman,  which  her  being  borne  by  it, 
can  symbolize.  It  does  not  denote  the  worship  by  the  kings  of 
her  idols.  It  has  no  adaptation  to  represent  such  an  agency,  and 
that  idolatry  is  symbolized  by  their  fornication  with  her.  It  does 
not  denote  a  submission  to  her  as  of  supreme  civil  authority  over 
them.  It  has  no  adaptation  to  express  that  submission,  and  they 
are  nowhere  exhibited  as  yielding  it  to  her.  The  sway  she  ex- 
erts over  them  she  is  represented  as  exerting  as  a  harlot  and  false 
prophet  by  enticements  and  miracles,  not  as  a  monarch  over  sub- 
jects. The  wild  beast  is  exhibited  as  the  supreme  civil  power; 
and  the  other  beast  works  wonders  before  it  as  such,  and  causes 
the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  to  worship  it.  There  is  no  relation 
to  the  wild  beast  therefore  which  her  station  can  denote,  but  her 
relation  as  a  combination  of  nationalized  hierarchies  ;  invested 
with  the  exclusive  authority  which  she  arrogates  to  teach  and 
worship,  supplied  with  revenues,  and  armed  with  power  to  en- 
force her  will  on  her  vassals,  and  to  persecute  her  opposers  ; 
and  it  has  an  obvious  adaptation  to  indicate  that  relation. 

Her  purple  and  scarlet,  her  gold  and  gems,  denote  her  wealth, 
luxury,  and  pomp;  her  name  and  cup,  her  idolatry  and  artful 
agency  in  seducing  the  nations  to  apostasy  ;  her  intoxication  with 
the  blood  of  the  saints,  the  infuriate  joy  she  derives  from  the 
slaughter  of  the  witnesses  of  Jesus. 

When,  however,  she  has  nearly  run  her  career,  the  kings  are 
to  hate  her,  to  rob  her  of  her  wealth,  divest  her  of  her  ornaments, 
make  her  naked,  devour  her  flesh,  and  burn  her  with  fire ;  for 
God  has  put  into  their  hearts  to  fulfil  his  will,  and  act  the  part 
which  is  ascribed  to  them  as  they  are  symbolized  by  the  horns 
of  the  wild  beast,  until  his  words  are  acconfiplished.  The  con- 
version of  the  kings  to  hatred  and  disarray  of  the  great  idola- 
tress, devouring  her  flesh  and  burning  her  with  fire,  seem  already 
in  a  degree  to  have  taken  place,  in  the  disallowance  of  her 


THE  TEN-HoftNED  WILD  BEAST,  AND  THE  KINGS.  499 

imperious  claims  in  most  of  llie  European  stales,  the  confis- 
cation of  her  property  in  France  and  slaughter  of  many  of  her 
priests,  the  robbery  of  the  churches,  monasteries,  and  ecclesias- 
tics, of  their  wealth,  wherever  the  French  armies  penetrated  du- 
ring the  wars  of  the  revolution,  the  conquest  of  the  papal  stales, 
and  dejection  of  the  pope  from  his  throne  by  Bonaparte,  the 
secularization  of  many  of  the  ecclesiastical  territories  in  Germa- 
ny, the  dissolution  of  the  religious  houses  and  confiscation  of 
ecclesiastical  property  in  Spain  and  Portugal  during  the  revolu- 
tions in  those  countries,  the  resumption  by  the  civil  rulers  of 
Austria  and  other  kingdoms  of  the  nomination  to  bishoprics  and 
t)lher  rights  which  had  been  conceded  to  her  on  the  erection  of 
the  image  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  and  in  the  abro- 
gation in  Great  Britain  of  the  monopoly  of  civil  offices  by  the 
members  of  the  establishment;  but  the  judgments  here  fore- 
shown are  to  follow  the  rise  of  the  beast  from  the  abyss. 

Commentators  have  universally  interpreted  the  expression,  the 
seven  heads  are  seven  mountains,  as  denoting  that  the  heads  are 
symbols  of  mountains.  But  that  is  against  analogy,  living  beings 
having  no  adaptation  to  symbolize  inanimate  objects  ;  nor  agents 
objects  incapable  of  an  agency.  The  meaning  undoubtedly  is, 
that  the  heads  are  like  the  mountains  which  had  been  exhibited 
to  the  prophet  in  a  different  vision,  symbols  of  seven  kinds  of 
rulers  ;  and  the  reason  of  the  comparison  is,  that  in  another 
vision,  which  is  not  fully  related,  the  mountains  had  been  em- 
ployed as  symbols  of  the  seven  species  of  supreme  rulers  of  the 
ancient  empire,  with  the  waters  as  symbols  of  the  population, 
while  the  woman  was  exhibited  as  seated  there  in  the  presence 
of  the  kings,  to  represent  her  in  the  exertion  of  the  agency  by 
which  she  induced  them  toapostacy.  How,  if  the  heads  are  the 
symbols  of  the  seven  hills  of  Rome,  is  the  representation  to  be 
explained  that  five  are  fallen,  one  is,  and  the  other  has  not  yet 
come  ;  and  when  it  is  come,  it  must  continue  a  short  time  ?  If 
the  heads  are  symbols  of  the  hills,  the  succession  of  the  heads 
must  denote  a  succession  of  the  hills  to  one  another,  as  much  as 
of  the  kings. 

Commentators  have  also  generally  interpreted  the  expression, 
the  woman  is  the  great  city  which  has  empire  over  the  kings  of 
the  earth,  as  denoting  that  she  is  a  symbol  of  Rome.  But  that 
is  against  analogy,  as  it  is  to  make  a  hving  agent  the  representa- 
tive of  an  inanimate  object.  To  suppose  her,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  be  a  symbol  of  Rome  as  a  connnunily,  is  to  suppose  her  to  be 
a  symbol  of  her  as  a  civil  community,  which  is  not  only  without 


500  THE  FALL  AND  BESTRUCtlON 

any  authority  from  the  prophecy,  but  is  irreconcilable  with  the 
representation  in  the  next  chapter,  that  the  nriaterial  city,  which 
is  used  to  symbolize  the  great  ecclesiastical  Babylon,  is  a  city 
of  commerce.  As  that  symbol  city,  which  represents  the  same 
ecclesiastical  structure  as  the  woman  is  employed  to  symbolize, 
is  a  city  of  commerce,  and  therefore  a  civil  community,  the  city 
which  they  represent  must  be  one  of  a  different  nature.  The 
material  city  employed  to  represent  the  spiritual  is  ancient 
Babylon  therefore  indisputably,  not  Rome.  That  is  apparent 
also  from  the  name,  which  is  used  literally,  not  as  a  metaphor ; 
and  from  the  sixth  vial,  in  which  the  Euphrates  is  used  to  repre- 
sent the  subjects  of  the  spiritual  Babylon,  and  Darius  and  Cyrus, 
the  kings  of  the  east,  who  dried  up  that  river,  to  personate  those 
who  are  to  exert  an  analogous  agency  on  the  ecclesiastical  Baby- 
lon, and  by  the  alienation  from  her  of  her  subjects  prepare  the 
w^ay  for  her  being  overthrown. 


SECTION  L. 

CHAPTER   XVIII.    1-24. 

THE  FALL  AND  DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  GREAT  BABYLON. 

And  after  these  I  saw  another  angel  descending  from  heaven, 
having  great  power,  and  the  earth  was  lighted  by  his  glory.  And 
he  cried  with  a  strong  voice  saying.  She  has  fallen,  has  fallen,  great 
Babylon,  and  become  a  habitation  of  demons,  and  a  station  of  every 
unclean  spirit,  and  a  station  of  every  unclean  and  hated  bird  ;  be- 
cause all  the  nations  have  drunk  of  the  inflaming  wine  of  her  forni- 
cation ;  and  the  kings  of  the  earth  have  committed  fornication  with 
her ;  and  the  merchants  of  the  earth  have  grown  rich  from  the 
strength  of  her  luxury. 

And  I  heard  another  voice  from  heaven  saying.  Come  out  of  her 
my  people,  that  ye  partake  not  of  her  sins,  and  that  ye  receive  not 
of  her  plagues  ;  for  her  sins  have  accumulated  to  heaven,  and  God 
has  remembered  her  iniquities.  Give  to  her  as  she  also  gave  ;  and 
double  to  her  double  according  to  her  works.  Into  the  cup  into 
which  she  has  poured,  pour  to  her  double.  As  much  as  she  has 
glorified  herself  and  lived  luxuriously,  so  much  torment  give  her  and 
sorrovv.  Because  in  her  heart  she  says,  I  sit  a  queen,  and  am  not  a 
widow,  and  I  cannot  see  sorrovv  ;  therefore  in  one  day  her  plagues 
shall  come,  death  and  sorrow  and  famine,  and  she  shall  be  burned 


OF  THE  GREAT  BABYLON.  501 

with  fire  ;  for  mighty  is  the  Lord  God  who  has  judged  her.  And  the 
kings  of  the  earth  who  have  committed  fornication  and  lived  luxuri- 
ously with  her,  when  standing  afar  for  fear  of  her  torment,  theysliall 
see  the  smoke  of  her  burning,  shall  lament  and  mourn  for  her  saying, 
Alas,  alas,  the  great  city  Babylon,  the  mighty  city ;  for  in  one  hour 
has  thy  judgment  come.  And  the  merchants  of  the  earth  weep  and 
lament  for  her,  because  no  one  buys  their  merchandise  any  more  ; 
merchandise  of  gold  and  silver,  and  precious  stone,  and  pearl,  and 
linen,  and  purple,  and  silk,  and  scarlet,  and  every  fragrant  wood, 
and  every  ivory  vessel,  and  every  vessel  of  most  precious  wood, 
and  of  brass,  and  of  iron,  and  of  marble,  and  cinnamon  and  spice, 
and  odors  and  ointment,  and  frankincense,  and  wine,  and  oil,  and 
fine  flour,  and  wheat,  and  cattle,  and  sheep,  and  of  horses,  and  of 
chariots,  and  of  bodies  and  souls  of  men.  And  the  ripe  fruits  of  thy 
soul's  desire  have  gone  from  thee,  and  all  thy  dainty  and  splendid 
things  have  perished  from  thee,  and  thou  shalt  not  find  them  any 
more.  The  merchants  of  those  things  who  have  grown  rich  by  her, 
shall  stand  afar  for  fear  of  her  torment,  weeping  and  lamenting,  say- 
ing, Alas,  alas,  the  great  city  which  was  clothed  in  linen,  and  purple, 
and  scarlet,  and  decked  with  gold  and  precious  stone,  and  pearls  ; 
for  in  one  hour  so  great  riches  are  destroyed.  And  every  pilot,  and 
every  one  who  sails  by  the  place,  and  sailors,  and  whoever  worked 
at  the  sea,  stood  at  a  distance  and  cried,  looking  at  the  smoke  of  her 
burning,  saying,  What  was  like  that  great  city  ?  And  they  cast  dust 
on  their  heads,  and  cried,  weeping  and  wailing,  saying,  Alas,  alas, 
the  great  city  by  which  all  who  have  vessels  in  the  sea  were  en- 
riched by  her  wealth  ;  for  in  one  hour  is  she  destroyed. 

Rejoice  over  her,  O  heavens,  and  the  saints,  and  the  apostles,  and 
the  prophets,  because  God  has  condemned  your  condemnation  by 
her. 

And  a  mighty  angel  took  a  stone,  as  a  great  millstone,  and  cast 
into  the  sea,  saying.  Thus  with  violence  shall  the  great  city  Babylon 
be  cast  down,  and  shall  not  be  found  any  more.  And  the  voice  of 
harpers,  and  musicians,  and  pipers,  and  trumpeters,  shall  not  be  heard 
any  more  in  thee  ;  and  no  artist  of  any  art  shall  be  found  any  more 
in  thee  ;  and  the  sound  of  a  millstone  shall  not  any  more  be  heard 
in  thee  ;  and  the  light  of  a  lamp  shall  not  shine  any  more  in  thee  ; 
and  the  voice  of  bridegroom  and  bride  shall  not  be  heard  any  more 
in  thee : — because  thy  merchants  were  the  great  men  of  the  earth  ; 
because  by  thy  sorceries  all  nations  were  seduced.  And  in  her  the 
blood  of  prophets  and  of  saints  was  found,  and  of  all  who  had  been 
slain  on  the  earth. 

The  angel  descending  from  lieaven  and  proclaiming  tlic  fall  ol 
Babylon  is  doubtless,  like  other  symbolic  agents,  the  representa- 
tive of  a  body  of  men.     The  effulgence  which  he  flaslies  over 


502  THE  FALL  AND  DESTRUCTION 

the  earth,  denotes  the  resistless  light  in  which  they  are  to  unveil 
the  apostate  character  of  Babylon,  and  the  dazzling  splendor  in 
which  they  are  to  set  the  rectitude  and  wisdom  of  God  in  her 
punishment.  The  vehemence  with  which  he  proclaims  her  fall 
indicates  that  they  are  to  regard  it  as  an  event  of  the  greatest 
significance.  Her  fall  is  to  be  her  dejection  from  her  station  as 
nationalized  by  the  civil  governments,  and  is  to  be  produced  by 
violence,  as  a  city  is  overthrown  only  by  a  violent  cause,  as  an 
eartliquake,  and  as  the  millstone  was  hurled  by  the  angel  with 
violence  into  the  sea  ;  and  it  is  to  be  the  work  of  the  multitude 
in  place  of  the  rulers,  as  is  shown  by  the  regrets  of  the  kings 
and  nobility  at  her  destruction. 

As  ancient  Babylon,  after  her  overthrow,  became  the  habita- 
tion of  wild  beasts,  her  desolate  houses  were  filled  with  doleful 
creatures  ;  owls,  and  satyrs,  and  dragons,  cried  in  her  pleasant 
palaces  ;  so  this  analogous  Babylon  is  to  become  the  resort  after 
her  fall  of  the  most  vile  and  detestable  beings.  Those  who  there- 
after unite  themselves  to  her,  are  to  be  as  much  more  depraved 
and  savage  than  her  former  adherents,  as  dragons,  owls,  and 
satyrs,  are  more  hideous  and  hateful  than  the  cultivated  popula- 
tion of  a  wealthy  and  powerful  cily.  They  are  to  throw  off  their 
disguises,  and  exhibit  their  hostiht)^to  God  in  all  its  impiousness. 
All  these  representations  indicate  that  her  denationalization  is  to 
be  a  most  momentous  change  to  her,  to  the  people  of  God,  and 
to  the  world. 

Her  overthrow,  like  that  of  ancient  Babylon,  is  to  be  in  conse- 
quence of  her  idolatry,  because  all  nations  have  drunk  of  her 
wine,  and  the  kings  have  united  with  her  in  the  practice  and  pro- 
pagation of  idol-worship.  This  representation  is  in  accordance 
with  the  different  agency  which  she  has  exerted  towards  them. 
The  multitude  have  been  seduced  to  her  false  worship  by  her 
arts  ;  while  the  kings  needed  no  such  seduction,  but  have  ever 
been  as  ready  to  usurp  the  rights  of  God  and  exalt  their  authority 
above  his,  as  she.  They  have  been  prompted  by  the  same  prin- 
ciples and  passions  in  their  co-operation  with  her  in  the  imposi- 
tion on  their  subjects  of  her  apostate  doctrines  and  worship. 

After  this  proclamation  of  her  fall,  the  prophet,  as  in  the  vision 
of  the  fourteenth  chapter,  heard  another  voice,  and  doubtless  as 
then,  of  another  angel,  summoning  the  people  of  God  to  come 
out  of  her,  lest  they  partake  of  her  sins,  and  receive  of  her 
plagues.  This  angel,  like  the  former,  is  to  be  regarded  as  the 
symbol  of  a  body  of  men,  and  his  cry  shows,  that  after  her  fall, 
some  of  the  people  of  God  are  still  to  linger  within  her  commu- 


OF  THE  GREAT  BABYLON.  503 

nion ;  and  that  after  they  who  proclaim  her  dejection  have  ful- 
filled their  office,  others  are  to  arise  and  summon  all  true  wor- 
shippers to  withdraw  from  her,  lest  by  continuing  under  her 
jurisdiction  they  sanction  her  sins,  and  expose  themselves  to  her 
punishment. 

The  discrimination  of  the  city  from  its  inhabitants,  verifies  the 
interpretation  I  have  given  of  it,  as  the  hierarchies  of  the  church 
in  distinction  from  their  mem.bers  ;  not  the  church  at  large  as 
many  regard  it.  What  the  walls  and  dwellings  of  a  material 
city  are  to  the  people  whom  they  protect  and  shelter,  the  hierar- 
chy of  a  church  is  to  the  members  who  place  themselves  under 
its  authority.  Her  punishment  is  to  be  a  wholly  different  event 
from  her  fall,  is  speedily  to  follow  that  catastrophe,  and  is  to  be 
inflicted  by  the  hand  of  men.  Give  to  her  as  she  gave.  Double 
to  her  double,  according  to  her  treatment  of  others.  Into  the 
cup  into  which  she  poured,  pour  to  her  double.  These  retribu- 
tions are  to  overtake  her  suddenly.  In  a  day  her  plagues  shall 
come,  death,  and  mourning,  and  famine,  and  she  shall  be  burned 
with  fire. 

The  kings  of  the  earth  who  had  united  with  her  in  her  idola- 
tries, are  to  witness  her  punishment  and  lament  it.  They  are 
not  to  be  its  authors  therefore,  nor  are  they  to  attempt  to  hinder 
it.  They  are  to  stand  at  a  distance,  and  leave  the  executors  of 
the  divine  wrath,  who  are  doubtless  to  be  the  multitude,  to  fulfil 
their  office  without  obstruction.  The  survivance  of  the  kings, 
shows  that  her  fall  is  to  take  place  before  the  great  battle  in 
which  they  are  to  be  destroyed.  Her  merchants  who  are  the 
great  ones  of  the  earth,  symbolize  the  nobles  doubtless  and 
dignitaries  that  held  the  patronage  of  her  benefices.  They  also, 
and  others  who  have  grown  rich  by  her  luxury,  are  like  the  kings, 
to  witness  her  overthrow,  without  attempting  to  intercept  it ;  and 
are  to  lament  it,  and  they  alone.  Heaven,  by  which  as  it  is  dis- 
tinguished from  the  redeemed,  is  doubtless  meant  the  angelic 
hosts,  is  summoned  to  rejoice  over  her,  and  the  saints,  and  the 
apostles,  and  the  prophets,  because  God  has  by  his  judgments 
condemned  her  condemnation  of  them. 

And  her  destruction  is  to  be  entire.  As  a  millstone  when 
thrown  into  the  depths  of  the  sea,  sinks  forever  from  the  sight 
of  men  ;  so  she  is  to  be  swept  from  the  earth  and  leave  not  a  trace 
of  her  greatness  or  mischievous  dominion  ;  and  because  she  is  a 
sorceress  whose  whole  agency  has  been  to  seduce  men  from 
God  ;  and  a  murderess  who  has  shed  the  blood  of  prophets  and 
saints,  and  of  all  who  have  been  slain  in  the  empire  for  the  word 


504  FALL  AND  DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  GREAT  BABYLON. 

of  God  during  her  sway :  which  is  another  mark  that  she  sym- 
bolizes the  nationalized  hierarchies,  as  they  have  been  the  insti- 
gators of  all  the  persecutions  of  the  witnesses  of  God  from  the 
commencement  of  their  testimony. 

What  a  tremendous  doom  thus  awaits  those  apostate  powers  ! 
What  a  demonstration  it  is  to  form  that  God  rejects  them  !  What 
a  refutation  of  their  impious  pretences  that  they  are  his  minis- 
ters, that  the)''  are  exclusively  invested  with  authority  to  teach 
his  will,  and  that  they  enjoy  his  sanction  in  their  usurpations, 
their  idolatries,  their  blasphemies,  their  persecution  of  his  wor- 
shippers !  And  what  an  illustrious  vindication  of  the  witnesses 
and  martyrs  who  resisted  alike  their  seduction,  and  their  ven- 
geance, and  maintained  allegiance  to  the  King  of  kings  ! 

Grotius,  Dr.  Hammond,  Mr.  Brightman,  Mr.  Daubuz,  and 
Vitringa,  regard  the  great  Babylon  as  a  literal  city,  and  as  Rome 
either  ancient  or  modern.  But  that  is  to  treat  the  prophecy  not 
as  symbolic,  but  in  every  thing  except  the  name  of  the  city,  as 
literal ;  and  is  therefore  of  all  constructions  the  most  certainly 
erroneous.  It  is  no  more  indisputable  that  the  woman  and  the 
wild  beast  are  symbolic,  than  it  is  that  the  literal  city  of  arts  and 
commerce  which  is  here  used  as  a  symbol,  is  representative  of  an 
analogous  structure  ;  and  if  those  writers  felt  justified  in  assum- 
ing that  it  denotes  a  literal  city,  they  should  for  the  same  reasons 
have  regarded  the  woman  as  symbolizing  a  literal  sorceress,  who 
induces  the  nations  to  drink  of  a  golden  cup  of  abominations  held 
in  her  hand  ;  and  the  wild  beast  as  denoting  a  literal  seven- 
headed  and  ten-horned  monster  on  which  the  sorceress  is  borne. 
But  as  the  vision  is  symbolic  ;  as  the  symbol  city  is  a  literal  city 
like  Babylon,  of  palaces  and  dwellings,  of  merchants  and  artisans, 
of  merchandise  and  luxury,  having  a  sea  and  land,  and  sustaining 
relations  to  civil  rulers  ;  it  is  thence  as  indisputably  certain  that 
the  city  she  represents,  is  not  a  merchant  city,  but  an  analogous 
structure  of  human  beings,  sustaining  a  relation  of  authority  and 
supremacy  towards  vast  multitudes  of  fellow-beings,  resembling 
that  of  a  city  of  walls  and  edifices  towards  the  population  that  is 
sheltered  within  it.  It  is  an  organized  body  of  men,  therefore, 
or  an  assemblage  of  organizations  that  exercise  official  influence 
and  dominion  over  a  community  or  communities.  It  is  not  a 
political  body,  inasmuch  as  it  is  distinguished  from  the  kings 
and  great  men  of  the  earth.  It  is  therefore  ecclesiastical,  and  is 
the  organized  body  of  the  rulers  and  teachers  of  the  nationalized 
church,  not  the  whole  body  of  the  church  itself;  no  more  than 
the  walls  and  edifices  of  a  city,  are  the  population  that  inhabit  it. 


THE  HYMN  OF  THE  HEAVENLY  HOSTS.  505 

It  is  that  vast  hierarchy  of  rulers  and  teacliers  whose  authority 
and  sway  overshadow  the  unofficial  multitude  of  the  church,  as 
the  walls  and  dwellings  of  a  city  invest  and  shelter  the  inhabit- 
ants that  reside  within  it. 

Mr.  Brightman,  Mr.  Daubuz,  Vitringa,  and  Mr.  Lowman,  ex- 
hibit the  merchants  as  the  great  dignitaries  of  the  apostate  church, 
and  the  sailors  and  traffickers  of  the  sea  as  the  inferior  ranks  of 
prelates,  priests,  and  monks  ;  which  inasmuch  as  those  ranks  are 
a  part  of  the  hierarchies  which  the  city  symbolizes,  is  to  make 
the  merchant  city,  and  its  merchants  and  traffickers  the  same. 
But  the  merchants,  sailors,  traffickers,  and  artisans,  are  not  of  those 
who  are  represented  by  the  city,  but  of  wholly  ditferent  orders  who 
contribute  to  its  support,  minister  to  its  luxury,  and  derive  from 
it  wealth.  They  symbolize  those  therefore  who  have  control  of 
the  benefices  and  revenues,  and  supply  the  sustenance  and  lux- 
ury of  the  hierarchies  ;  such  as  the  nobles  and  officers  of  state 
who  hold  the  right  of  patronage,  and  the  vast  train  of  officials 
who  serve  in  the  spiritual  courts,  manage  the  property  of  the 
church,  and  constitute  the  households  of  the  great  dignitaries. 


SECTION  LI. 

CHAPTER    XIX.     1-4. 

THE  HYMN  OF  THE  HEAVENLY  HOSTS    ON  THE  DESTRUCTION    OF 

BABYLON. 

After  these,  I  heard  as  a  loud  voice  of  a  great  multitude  in  hea 
ven,  saying,  Halleluia  !  The  salvation,  and  the  glory,  and  the  power 
of  our  God  ;  for  true  and  righteous  [are]  his  judsruieiits  ;  for  he  has 
judged  the  great  harlot,  who  corrupted  the  earth  with  her  fornica- 
tion, and  has  vindicated  the  blood  of  his  servants  from  her  hand ! 
And  again  they  said,  Halleluia  !  And  her  smoke  ascends  forever  and 
ever.  And  the  four-aiid-twenty  elders,  and  the  four  living  creatures 
fell  and  worshipped  God  who  sat  on  the  throne,  saying.  Amen,  Hal- 
leluia ! 

The  shout  from  heaven  of  praise  to  God  and  celebration  of 
the  truth  and  justice  of  his  judgments  in  the  destruction  of  the 
apostate  hierarchies,  was  obviously  from  the  angelic  hosts,  as 
the  response  from  the  elders  and  living  creatures  is  symbolic  of 

64 


506  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  LAMB. 

an  answering  song  from  the  redeemed  ;  and  denote  that  they  are 
not  only  to  be  spectators  of  her  overthrow,  but  to  discern  its 
uprightness  and  wisdom ;  and  are  fully  therefore  to  know  her 
character  and  agency,  his  dispensations  towards  her,  and  the  in- 
fluences that  are  to  spring  from  her  punishment.  What  a  vast- 
ness  of  knowledge  it  imphes  !  What  a  sense  of  his  rights  ! 
What  an  acquaintance  with  the  reasons  for  which  he  ahows  men 
to  rebel,  and  displays  his  rights  and  justice  in  their  punishment ! 
What  a  realization  of  the  guilt  of  rebellion  ;  and  what  an  assu- 
rance that  that  great  measure  of  his  administration  is  to  subserve 
the  well-being  of  his  kingdom  through  eternal  ages  !  This 
hymn  presents  a  further  demonstration  that  she  is  not  a  material 
city,  but  the  representative  of  apostate  men.  As  a  material  city 
is  not  an  agent,  and  not  the  subject  of  praise  or  blame,  its  de- 
struction could  form  no  such  display  of  the  righteousness  of 
God,  or  vindication  of  those  whose  blood  had  been  shed  in  it. 


SECTION  LII. 

CHAPTER    XIX.    5-10. 
THE    MARRIAGE    OF    THE    LAMB. 


And  a  voice  came  from  the  throne,  saying,  Praise  our  God,  all  ye 
his  servants,  and  ye  who  fear  him,  small  and  great.  And  I  heard  as 
a  voice  of  a  great  multitude,  and  as  a  voice  of  many  waters,  and  as 
a  voice  of  mighty  thunders,  saying,  Ilalleluia,  that  the  Lord  God 
Almighty  has  reigned.  Let  us  rejoice,  and  exult,  and  give  glory 
to  him,  for  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb  has  come,  and  his  bride  has 
prepared  herself.  And  it  was  given  to  her  that  she  should  be  robed 
in  fine  linen,  bright  and  pure  ;  for  the  fine  linen  is  the  righteousness, 
of  the  saints. 

And  he  said  unto  me,  Write,  Blessed  are  they  who  are  called  to 
the  supper  of  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb.  And  he  said  to  me,  These 
are  the  true  words  of  God.  And  I  fell  at  his  feet  to  worship  him  ; 
and  he  said  to  me,  See  thou  do  it  not.  I  am  a  fellow-servant  of  thee 
and  of  thy  brethren,  who  hold  the  testimony  of  Jesus.  Worship  God, 
for  the  testimony  of  Jesus  is  the  Spirit  of  prophecy. 

The  voice  from  the  throne  summoning  all  the  servants  of  God 
of  every  rank  to  praise  him,  indicates  that  a  great  epoch  is  then 


THE  MARRIAGE  OP  THE  LAMB.  507 

to  be  reached  in  his  government,  and  a  manifestation  made  of  the 
resuUs  of  his  mysterious  dispensations,  that  shall  vindicate  their 
rectitude  and  wisdom.  The  halleluia  of  the  multitude  that  the 
Lord  the  God  Almighty  has  reigned,  indicates  that  they  are  to 
see  that  the  peculiar  administration  which  he  has  exercised,  is 
most  skilfully  adapted  to  the  great  ends  of  his  empire,  and  worthy 
of  his  infinite  attributes,  and  has  prepared  the  way  for  the  reign 
of  grace  that  is  to  follow  through  everlasting  years. 

The  summons  to  rejoice  and  give  him  glory,  because  the  mar- 
riage of  the  Lamb  has  come,  and  his  bride  has  prepared  herself, 
denotes  that  the  period  of  the  resurrection  and  public  adoption 
of  the  holy  dead  has  arrived,  that  his  previous  administration  has 
served  to  fit  them  for  the  new  relations  to  which  they  are  to  be 
exalted,  and  that  it  is  to  be  to  them  an  epoch  of  pecuhar  joy  and 
exultation.  Her  being  arrayed  in  fine  linen,  bright  and  pure,  sig- 
nifies their  public  justification  ;  her  marriage,  their  exaltation  to 
stations  as  heirs  and  joint-heirs  forever  in  his  kingdom,  as  is 
shown  by  the  symbol.  As  a  bride  by  her  marriage  is  united  to 
her  husband  through  life,  so  the  redeemed  are  by  their  marriage 
with  the  Lamb,  to  be  exalted  to  that  relation  to  him  which  they 
are  forever  thereafter  to  sustain.  They  are  never  to  descend  to 
a  lower  station  ;  they  are  never  to  ascend  to  a  higher  ;  but  are  to 
reign  with  him  as  kings  and  priests  forever  and  ever.  Their 
marriage  is  therefore  to  involve  their  resurrection  from  death,  and 
exaltation  to  the  thrones  on  which  they  are  to  serve  liim  through 
their  endless  existence. 

They  who  are  to  be  called  to  the  supper  of  the  marriage  of 
the  Lamb,  are  different  persons  from  the  raised  and  glorified 
saints  who  are  denoted  by  the  bride,  and  are  doubtless  the  un- 
glorified  saints  on  earth. 

The  response  of  the  angel  to  the  apostle  when  falling  to  wor- 
ship him,  is  eminently  beautiful,  indicating  a  befitting  sense  of 
the  sanctity  of  God's  rights,  and  exalting  the  services  of  the  wit- 
nesses of  Jesus  to  an  equality  with  his  own.  I  am  a  servant  of 
the  same  order  as  you  and  your  brethren  who  hold  the  testimony 
of  Jesus  ;  for  you  and  they  in  proclaiming  that  testimony  before 
the  nations  and  kings  of  the  earth,  are  to  fulfil  essentially  the 
same  office  as  I,  guided  by  the  revealing  Spirit,  have  fulfilled  in 
interpreting  the  prophecy  to  you. 


508  THE  WORD  OF  GOD  AND  HIS  ARMIES. 


SECTION  LIII. 

CHAPTER    XIX.    11-91. 
THE    WORD    OF    GOD    AND    HIS    ARMIES. 

And  I  saw  heaven  opened  ;  and  behold  a  white  horse,  and  he 
who  sat  on  it  is  called  faithful  and  true  ;  and  in  righteousness  he 
judges  and  makes  war.  And  his  eyes  [were]  as  a  flame  of  fire,  and 
on  his  head  many  diadems,  having  a  name  written  which  no  one 
knew  but  he.  And  he  was  clothed  in  a  garment  dyed  with  blood. 
And  his  name  is  called  The  Word  of  God.  And  the  armies  which 
were  in  heaven  followed  him  on  white  horses,  clothed  in  fine  linen, 
white  and  pure.  And  from  his  mouth  proceeds  a  sharp  sword,  that 
with  it  he  may  smite  the  nations,  and  he  shall  rule  them  with  an  iron 
sceptre,  and  he  shall  tread  the  wine-press  of  the  wine  of  the  vehe- 
mence of  the  wrath  of  God  Almighty.  And  he  has  on  his  garments, 
and  on  his  thigh  a  name  written.  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords. 

And  I  saw  one  angel  stationed  in  the  sun.  And  he  cried  with  a 
loud  voice  saying  to  all  the  birds  that  fly  in  mid-heaven,  Come,  ga- 
ther ye  together  to  the  great  supper  of  God,  that  ye  may  eat  flesh 
of  kings  and  flesh  of  commanders  of  thousands,  and  flesh  of  mighty 
men,  and  flesh  of  horses,  and  of  them  who  sat  on  them,  and  flesh  of 
all,  both  freemen  and  slaves,  both  small  and  great. 

And  I  saw  the  wild  beast,  and  the  kings  of  the  earth  and  their 
armies,  gathered  together  to  make  war  with  him  who  sat  on  the 
horse  and  with  his  army.  And  the  wild  beast  was  taken,  and  the 
false  prophet  with  it,  who  wrought  wonders  before  it,  with  which  he 
deceived  those  who  received  the  mark  of  the  wild  beast,  and  those 
who  worshipped  its  image.  And  they  two  were  cast  alive  into  the 
lake  of  fire  which  burns  with  brimstone.  And  the  rest  were  slain 
with  the  sword  which  proceeded  from  the  mouth  of  him  who  sat  on 
the  horse,  and  all  the  birds  were  filled  with  their  flesh. 

He  who  sat  on  the  white  horse,  is  shown  by  his  characters 
and  titles  to  be  the  Son  of  God.  As  his  diadems  are  the  badge 
of  his  office  as  the  incarnate  Word,  that  tiiere  is  a  name  written 
on  them  which  no  one  knows  but  he,  indicates  that  the  aims  of  his 
incarnation,  exaltation,  and  reign  over  the  universe  through  eter- 
nal years,  wholly  transcend  the  grasp  of  created  intelligences, 
and  are  comprehensible  only  by  Omniscience.  That  he  is  known 
by  them,  however,  to  be  the  incarnate  Word,  is  shown  by  the 
name  by  which  he  is  designated.  The  Word  of  God,  the  creator 
of  all  things,  the  revealer  of  the  Deity  to  creatures,  the  Redeemer 


THE  WORD  OF  GOD  AND  HIS  ARMIES.  509 

of  men.  And  on  his  robe  and  on  his  thigh  are  written  the  titles 
of  the  office  which  he  descends  to  assume  on  earth,  Kin"  of  kings, 
and  Lord  of  lords.  He  appears  in  his  own  person,  because  no 
created  agent  has  any  adequacy  to  represent  liim  either  in  nature 
or  office.  The  office  of  the  horse  is  simply  to  symbolize  his  de- 
scent to  the  earth  as  a  king,  and  like  the  splendor  of  his  counte- 
nance, the  eff'ulgence  of  his  diadems,  his  garments,  and  his  ar- 
mies, to  show  that  his  advent  is  to  be  visible,  and  with  the  pow- 
er and  pomp  of  a  victorious  and  avenging  monarch.  He  is  faith- 
ful and  true  ;  he  descends  to  judge  and  to  execute  judgment  on 
the  nations,  and  to  reign  over  the  earth. 

The  armies  in  heaven  that  follow  him,  are  of  the  same  corpo- 
real nature  as  he,  manifestly,  from  their  being  seated  on  horses, 
and  are  shown  to  be  the  raised  and  glorified  saints,  also,  by  their 
robes  of  fine  white  linen,  in  which  the  bride,  by  whom  they  were 
symbolized  in  a  former  vision,  was  given  to  be  arrayed.  They 
also  appear  in  their  own  persons,  because  neither  any  other  beings, 
nor  any  fictitious  symbols,  are  suited  to  represent  them  ;  and  their 
descent  is  likewise  to  be  visible.  The  opening  of  the  heavens 
to  reveal  them,  denotes  that  their  descent  is  to  be  from  paradise,  the 
world  where  the  Redeemer  now  reigns,  and  the  ransomed  dwell; 
not  merely  from  the  higher  regions  or  clouds  of  our  atmosphere, 
like  the  rainbow-angel,  the  angel  announcing  the  fall  of  Babylon, 
and  others,  who  symbolize  men  who  arise  and  exert  important 
agencies  on  earth. 

All  these  peculiar  representations,  render  it  indisputable  that 
this  coming  is  to  be  a  personal  and  visible  advent.  There  is  no 
instance  in  the  Apocalypse,  or  any  of  the  other  symbolic  proph- 
ecies, in  which  the  Sou  of  God  is  exhibited  as  the  symbol  of  a 
created  being,  or  succession  of  creatures.  There  is  no  analogy 
between  him  and  his  subjects  by  which  he  could  appropriately 
represent  them.  It  were  to  contradict  their  relations  to  each  oth- 
er. It  were  to  detract  from  his  dignity  and  the  sanctity  of  his 
rights.  It  were  indeed,  in  this  instance,  to  foreshadow  an  as- 
sumption of  his  office  as  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  and 
exercise  of  his  incommunicable  prerogatives  by  creatures,  and  to 
sanction,  therefore,  a  usurpation  of  his  throne,  like  that  of  which 
the  wild  beast  and  false  prophet  are  guilty.  This  personage  in- 
disputably has  the  name  and  titles  of  the  eternal  Word,  and  de- 
scends to  exercise  his  peculiar  office  in  judging  and  taking  ven- 
geance on  his  enemies,  and  reigning  over  his  saints,  and,  there- 
fore, if  he  be  a  symbol  of  an  order  and  succession  of  men  on 
earth,  it  is  an  order  and  succession  who  assume  his  name  and  li- 


510  THE  WORD  OF  GOD  AND  IIIS  ARMIES. 

ties,  arrogate  his  prerogatives,  and  attempt  to  exercise  his  pecu- 
liar office  as  God-man,  the  king  of  saints,  and  the  destroyer  of 
those  who  refuse  submission  to  their  reign  ;  and  those  are  the  as- 
sumptions and  endeavors  of  the  anticliristian  powers  which  he 
comes  to  destroy.  There  is  no  supposition,  therefore,  that  so 
contradicts  the  whole  prophecy,  that  so  detracts  from  the  digni- 
ty, the  rights,  and  the  wisdom  of  the  Redeemer  which  he  comes 
to  assert  and  vindicate,  and  that  is  thence  so  certainly  false,  as 
that  which  exhibits  him  as  here  appearing  as  a  representative  of 
men.  It  is,  in  every  relation,  the  grossest  solecism,  making  the 
creator  the  symbol  of  creatures,  the  king  the  symbol  of  his  sub- 
jects, the  judge  of  those  whom  he  judges,  the  infinitely  upright 
of  rebels,  Christ  of  usurping  antichrists. 

The  supposition  that  the  coming  symbolized  by  this  descent, 
is  not  personal,  but  merely  by  acts  of  power,  justice,  or  grace, 
or  a  manifestation  of  his  presence  by  effects,  as  held  by  Dr. 
Whitby,  Mr.  Faber,  Mr.  Vint,  Mr.  Bush,  Mr.  Stuart,  and  many 
others,  is  equally  untenable.  As  the  agent  himself  is  exhibited, 
and  is  wholly  distinct  from  his  agency,  so  indisputably  he  is  sym- 
bolic, as  well  as  the  acts  he  exerts.  His  act  also  in  descending 
is  to  be  regarded  as  a  symbol  as  much  as  his  act  in  ruling  and 
judging  the  nations,  treading  the  wine-press,  or  any  other  which 
he  is  represented  as  exerting  after  he  reaches  the  earth.  It  can 
no  more  be  assumed  that  the  agent  is  not  to  descend,  than  it  can 
that  he  is  not  to  reign,  to  judge,  and  inflict  vengeance  on  his  en- 
emies. To  hold  that  it  can  be  otherwise,  is  to  imply  that  a  sim- 
ilar assumption  is  justifiable  in  respect  to  every  other  symbolic 
agent  in  the  visions,  and  erase  at  a  stroke  every  trace  of  signifi- 
cance from  the  prophecy.  If  the  agent  in  this  instance  symbol- 
ize nothing,  if  there  be  nothing  foreshown  but  an  agency,  it  may 
and  must,  for  whatever  reasons  authorize  that  assumption,  be  in 
like  manner  deemed  that  the  other  symbolic  agents  are  of  no  sig- 
nificance, and  that  nothing  is  foreshadowed  but  mere  acts.  The 
dragon,  the  wild  beasts,  the  great  sorceress,  the  image,  the  wo- 
man clothed  with  the  sun,  the  witnesses,  the  martyr  souls,  the 
angel  ascending  from  the  east,  the  rainbow-angel,  are  no  longer 
on  that  assumption  to  be  regarded  as  representative  agents  ;  their 
natures,  their  titles  and  characteristics,  convey  no  information  in 
respect  to  any  beings  who  were  or  are  to  appear  and  act  on  the 
earth.  We  have  no  longer  the  slightest  indication  that  any  of  the 
agencies  foreshown  are  to  be  exerted  by  men,  but  rather  a  pre- 
sumption that  they  are  to  be  the  work  of  invisible  beings.  We 
have,  consequently,  no  indication  that  any  one  of  the  agencies 


THE  WORD  OF  GOD  AND  HIS  ARJIIES.  511 

symbolized  in  the  visions  has  yet  been  exerted,  inasmuch  as  we 
have  no  knowledge  of  any  acts  of  invisible  beings  that  are  a  ful- 
filment of  the  prophecy.  The  events  which  are  alleged  by  inter- 
preters as  accomphshments  of  the  predictions,  are  the  actions  of 
men,  not  of  invisible  agents.  They  were  men  who  exercised  the 
agency  which  is  supposed  to  be  foreshown  by  the  horsemen  of 
the  first  four  seals,  and  the  hail,  the  burning  mountain,  the  worm- 
wood meteor,  the  locusts  and  the  horsemen  of  the  trumpets. 
They  were  men,  and  men  alone,  to  whom  the  acts  are  ascribed 
which  are  generally  supposed  to  be  symbolized  by  the  seven- 
headed  dragon,  the  ten-horned  wild  beast,  the  wild  beast  of  two 
horns,  and  the  sorceress.  If  the  symbolic  agents,  therefore,  are 
of  no  significance,  if  their  exliibition  in  the  visions  does  not  show 
that  those  whom  they  represent  are  to  appear  in  the  scene  of 
the  agency  which  they  foreshow,  if  that  agency  may  be  the  work 
of  beings  invisible  and  immeasurably  distant,  then  no  just  ground 
remains  for  the  assumption  that  any  acts  which  men  have  exert- 
ed are  fulfilments  of  the  prophecy,  and  every  interpretation  hith- 
erto advanced  must  be  rejected  as  without  any  demonstrable  or 
probable  accuracy.  Such  is  the  refutation  of  their  own  systems 
of  construction  which  their  assumptions  involve,  who  hold  that 
there  is  nothing  but  a  mere  agency  symbolized  in  the  presence 
and  agency  of  the  Son  of  God  in  this  vision. 

In  like  manner  if  some  of  the  actions  which  the  symbolic  agents 
are  exhibited  as  exerting  may  be  assumed  to  be  of  no  signifi- 
cance, all  certainty  is  destroyed  that  any  of  them  are  of  a 
representative  character.  Whatever  consideration  can  sliow  that 
the  act  of  the  Word  of  God  in  descending  from  the  opened 
heavens  to  the  earth  is  of  no  symbolic  meaning,  will  equally 
show  that  his  smiting  the  nations,  his  ruling  them  with  an  iron 
sceptre,  and  his  treading  the  wine-press,  are  without  any  pro- 
phetic import  whatever,  and  divest  at  once  all  the  agencies  of 
the  symbols,  as  well  as  the  symbolic  agents  themselves,  of  a 
representative  character.  Such  is  the  bottomless  gulf  of  error 
and  absurdity  into  which  they  precipitate  themselves,  who  as- 
sume that  the  descent  of  the  Word  of  God  in  this  vision  is  no 
symbol  of  his  personal  advent. 

That  assumption  is  irreconcilable  also  with  the  representation 
that  the  armies  in  heaven  follow  him  in  his  descent.  Wiiat  im- 
port can  be  attached  to  that  act  unless  his  descent  is  symbolic 
of  a  personal  advent  ?  If  they  are  not  personally  and  visibly  to 
come  when  the  great  acts  are  to  be  exerted  which  the  vision  is 
designed  to  foreshow,  there  clearly  is  no  agency  of  which  they 


512  THE  WORD  OF  GOD  AND  HIS  ARMIES. 

are  capable  which  it  can  be  imagined  to  symbolize.  They  can- 
not be  supposed  to  produce  effects  on  earth  while  in  a  distant 
sphere,  nor  without  a  descent,  to  witness  the  agencies  of  other 
beings  in  our  world. 

As  indeed  there  is  no  act  ascribed  to  them  in  the  vision 
except  their  following  the  Word  of  God,  to  assume  that  neither 
that  act  nor  their  presence  has  any  significance,  is  to  assume 
that  there  is  no  reason  for  their  representation  in  the  vision  ;  and 
if  that  may  be  assumed  in  respect  to  them,  it  obviously  may 
equally  in  respect  to  every  other  agent  and  agency,  and  the 
whole  prophecy  at  once  be  totally  divested  of  its  meaning. 
There  is  no  medium  then  between  regarding  tlie  vision  as  sym- 
bolizing a  personal  advent  of  the  Word  of  God  and  his  army, 
and  the  rejection  of  the  whole  series  of  symbolic  agents  and 
agencies  as  without  any  significance. 

And  finally,  that  it  is  to  be  a  personal  and  visible  advent,  is 
shown  by  the  express  representation  in  the  introduction  of  the 
Apocalypse  that  he  is  to  come  with  the  clouds,  and  every  eye 
shall  see  him,  and  they  that  pierced  him,  and  all  the  tribes  of  the 
earth  shall  wail  because  of  him. 

The  sun  undoubtedly,  in  this  vision,  as  under  the  fourth  trum- 
pet and  fourth  vial,  is  a  symbol  of  the  rulers  exercising  chief 
authority  in  the  ten  kingdoms.  The  one  angel  accordingly  sta- 
tioned in  it,  and  summoning  the  birds  to  assemble  and  eat  the 
flesh  of  the  antichristian  host,  is  a  symbol  of  at  least  some  one 
conspicuous  person,  perhaps  a  class,  that  is  to  be  in  intimate 
communication  with  those  rulers,  but  not  of  their  number,  and 
that  is  to  warn  them  of  their  impending  destruction.  As  the  ar- 
mies are  to  be  literal  armies,  and  the  slaughter  a  literal  slaughter, 
so  the  birds  that  fly  in  mid-heaven  are  to  be  literal  birds,  and  car- 
nivorous, of  which  it  is  characteristic  that  they  soar  at  great 
heights,  and  discern  their  prey  at  a  distance.  To  suppose  the 
birds,  the  slaughter,  and  the  carcasses,  are  not  to  be  literal,  is  to 
suppose  that  the  death  which  is  symbolized  is  not  to  be  the 
death  of  the  body  but  of  the  spirit,  which  is  to  contradict  the 
whole  representation. 

The  wild  beast  is  here  the  representative  not  of  all  the  civil 
rulers  of  every  grade  of  the  ten  kingdoms,  but  of  the  eighth  or 
imperial  king,  chapter  xvii.  11.  The  kings  and  their  armies  Avho 
are  assembled  with  the  M'ild  beast,  are  to  be  regarded  as  the  kings 
and  armies  of  the  ten  and  other  antichristian  kingdoms,  as  of  the 
north  and  east  of  Europe  without  the  limits  of  the  western  em- 
pire, and  of  Asia  also,  and  Northern  Africa.    All  the  usurping 


THE  BINDING  OT"  SATAN.  513 

and  persecuting  enemies  of  Christ  are  to  share  in  that  catas- 
trophe. 

The  dejection  alive  of  the  wild  beast  and  false  prophet  into 
the  lake  of  fire  that  burns  with  brimstone,  implies  that  the  bodies 
of  those  whom  they  symbolize  are  to  be  made  immortal,  like 
those  who  are  to  be  consigned  to  that  abyss  after  a  resurrection 
from  death  to  shame  and  everlasting  contempt.  The  rest  of  the 
armies  are  to  be  slain  by  the  sword — the  symbol  that  a  sentence 
of  avenging  justice  is  to  be  pronounced  on  them — which  proceeds 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  birds  are  to  be 
filled  with  their  flesh. 

This  great  battle,  in  which  all  the  civil,  ecclesiastical,  and 
military  enemies  of  Christ,  arrayed  in  organized  and  open  hos- 
tility to  him,  are  to  be  destroyed,  is  doubtless  the  same  as  that 
of  Armageddon,  to  which  the  kings  are  to  be  gathered  by  the 
unclean  spirits  ;  and  is  a  wholly  different  gathering  from  that 
denoted  by  the  vintage  and  the  parable  of  the  goats,  which  is  to 
take  place  subsequently,  and  embrace  classes  who  sustain  the 
relations  of  supporters  and  approvers  to  the  wild  beast  and  false 
prophet,  like  those  of  the  merchants,  the  artisans,  the  sailors, 
and  traffickers  of  the  sea,  to  the  great  Babylon,  and  those  sym- 
bolized by  the  goats  who  refuse  all  succor  to  the  brethren  of 
Christ  when  persecuted  by  the  wild  beast. 

As  the  glorified  saints  are  to  attend  the  Redeemer  at  this  ad- 
vent, their  resurrection,  acceptance,  and  exaltation  to  stations  as 
kings  and  priests  in  his  kingdom,  are  to  precede  that  great  bat- 
tle ;  and  it  is  on  that  occasion,  doubtless,  that  Christ's  promise, 
chap.  iii.  26,  27,  is  to  be  fulfilled,  that  he  will  give  them  power 
over  the  nations,  and  they  shall  rule  them  with  an  iron  sceptre, 
as  earthen  vessels  are  broken. 


SECTION  LIV. 
CHAPTER    XX.    1-3. 
THE  BINDING  OF  SATAN. 


And  I  saw  an  angel  descending  from  heaven,  having  the  key  of 
the  abyss,  and  a  great  chain  in  bis  hand.  And  he  seized  the  dragon^ 
the  ancient  serpent,  who  is  the  devil  and  Satan,  and  bound  him  a 

65 


514  THE  BINDING  OF  SATAN. 

thousand  years,  and  cast  him  into  the  abyss,  and  shut  and  set  a  seal 
on  it,  that  he  might  not  seduce  the  nations  any  more  until  the  thou- 
sand years  should  be  finished ;  and  after  them  he  must  be  loosed  a 
short  time. 

The  dragon  is  expressly  defined  to  be  the  ancient  serpent,  who 
is  the  devil  and  Satan,  the  great  adversary  of  God  and  man,  who 
has  seduced  the  nations.  He  is  the  great  fallen  angel  therefore, 
not  the  fictitious  monster  the  seven-headed  dragon,  by  which  the 
rulers  of  the  Roman  empire  anterior  to  its  subversion  are  sym- 
bolized ;  and  he  is  the  representative  of  himself  merely  and  his 
subordinate  angels,  not  of  pagan  priests  and  rulers,  as  in  the 
vision  of  the  war  in  lieaven  with  Michael  and  his  angels.  The 
characteristics  ascribed  to  him,  such  as  antiquity  and  the  seduc- 
tion of  the  nations  of  earlier  ages,  are  not  predicable  of  any  who 
exist  on  the  earth  only  during  a  short  period.  The  only  men  who 
are  represented  in  the  prophecy  as  seducing  the  nations  are  those 
symbolized  by  the  false  prophet,  who  has  already  been  exhibited 
as  cast  alive  into  the  lake  of  fire  which  burns  with  brimstone.  No 
men  of  that  class,  therefore,  can  be  supposed  to  be  any  longer  on 
the  earth.  To  regard  him  as  the  symbol  of  men  on  earth,  is  either 
to  suppose  the  same  individual  men  to  continue  to  live  shut  up  in  an 
abyss  through  three  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  year's,  to  be  re- 
leased after  that  period,  restored  to  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  to 
resume  their  former  agency,  or  else  to  suppose  them  to  continue 
as  a  race  by  propagation  in  such  an  abyss  through  that  period  ; 
each  of  which  is  wholly  incompatible  with  our  nature.  Neither 
a  race  nor  individuals  dependent  for  life  on  air,  light,  warmth, 
and  perpetual  sustenance  by  vegetables  and  animals  that  exist 
only  in  an  atmosphere  illuminated  by  a  sun,  can  subsist  in  a  bot- 
tomless deep  from  which  those  requisites  to  life  are  wholly  ex- 
cluded. He  is  the  representative,  therefore,  not  of  men,  but  of 
himself  only  and  his  associate  fallen  angels.  He  is  exhibited  in 
his  own  person  because  no  other  being,  real  or  imaginary,  could 
serve  as  his  representative. 

It  may  be  thought  inadmissible  thus  to  assume  that  the  pit  and 
the  imprisonment,  are  symbols  of  a  real  abyss  or  deep,  and  a 
real  imprisonment  in  it  of  the  symbolized  agents.  But  the  de- 
sign of  the  spectacle,  it  should  be  considered,  is  not  to  foreshow 
a  punishment  of  those  agents  for  a  previous  agency,  but  merely 
their  interception  from  influence  on  the  nations  during  the  thou, 
sand  years.  The  abyss  must  be  taken,  therefore,  as  denoting  a 
real  place,  such  as  a  deep  cavern  of  the  earth  may  properly 
symbohze  ;  and  the  dejection  of  Satan  bound  into  it  and  confine- 


THE   BINDING  OF  SATAN.  515 

ment  there,  his  banishment  from  the  presence  of  the  nations  to 
whom  his  removal  is  a  rehef  and  deUverance,  and  restraint  from 
access  to  them  during  the  period  represented  by  the  thousand 
years.  Otherwise  there  is  no  analogy  between  the  symbols  and 
that  which  they  are  employed  to  denote. 

The  angel  with  the  key  and  chain,  is  as  obviously  a  symbol 
of  unfallen  angels,  not  of  men.  The  agency  ascribed  to  him 
is  such  as  none  but  angelic  beings  are  competent  to  exert.  The 
angel  who  bound  and  imprisoned  the  devil,  is  distinguished  both 
from  the  nations  who  are  freed  from  his  presence  and  influence 
during  his  imprisonment,  and  from  those  who  are  seduced  by 
him  after  his  release.  He  cannot  be  a  symbol  of  those  nations 
therefore,  nor  a  part  of  them.  He  is  a  representative  of  angels 
then,  not  of  men ;  and  they  are  symbolized  by  one  of  their  own 
species,  because  no  being  of  another  order  is  adequate  to  repre- 
sent them. 

The  period  of  the  imprisonment  is  symbolic,  as  well  as  the 
agents,  the  key  and  the  chain,  the  abyss  and  the  seal ;  and  rep- 
resenting, like  other  symbolic  periods,  a  year  for  each  day,  de- 
notes three  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  years.  It  can  no  more 
be  assumed  that  this  part  of  the  representation  is  not  symbolic, 
than  that  any  other  part  is  not.  I'he  period  of  a  symbolic  act 
must  necessarily  be  symbolic,  as  well  as  the  agent,  the  object, 
the  instrument,  the  scene,  and  the  action  itself.  Whatever  rea- 
son can  justify  the  assumption  that  any  one  of  them  is  not  a 
symbol,  will  equally  justify  the  denial  of  that  character  to  every 
other. 

This  great  spectacle  then  foreshows,  that  the  devil  and  his 
legions  are  to  be  seized  by  the  holy  angels,  and  imprisoned  in 
the  abyss  three  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  years ;  and  are  af- 
terwards to  be  released  for  a  short  time.  That  imprisonment  is 
to  take  place  after  the  advent  of  the  Redeemer,  the  resurrection 
of  the  holy  dead,  and  the  destruction  of  the  wild  beast  and  false 
prophet ;  as  is  shown  by  the  representation  that  the  risen  saints 
are  to  reign  with  Christ  on  the  earth  diu-ing  the  thousand  sym- 
bolic years,  that  the  release  of  Satan  from  the  abyss  is  to  take 
place  after  that  period  has  expired,  and  that  he  is  then  to  be  preci- 
pitated into  the  lake  of  fire  and  brimstone,  into  which  the  wild 
beast  and  false  prophet  were  cast.  Vitringa  supposes  the  angel 
with  the  key  and  chain,  a  symbol  either  of  divine  providence  or 
of  Christ;  Mr.  Bush,  of  the  power  of  the  gospel.  But  neither 
is  consistent  with  analogy,  a  living  symbol  never  representing  a 
mere  power,  agency,  or  event,  nor  a  creature  the  creator. 


516  THE  BINDING  OF  SATAN. 

Some  interpreters,  as  Mr,  Vint,  exliibit  this  dragon  as  the 
same  as  the  brute  serpent  of  chapter  xii.  3.  But  that  was 
merely  a  fictitious  dragon,  employed  to  symbolize  by  its  seven 
heads,  the  seven  orders  of  the  supreme  rulers  of  the  ancient 
Roman  empire.  This  is  expressly  declared  to  be  the  devil,  not 
a  fictitious,  but  a  real  being.  The  persons  symbolized  by  that 
dragon  were  not  bound,  but  the  last  of  the  train  dethroned  and 
superseded  in  the  western  empire  by  other  orders,  represented 
by  the  ten-horned  wild  beast  from  the  sea.  Others  who  regard 
Satan  as  the  agent  that  is  bound,  interpret  the  binding  as  deno- 
ting only  a  diminution  of  his  influence,  not  its  absolute  intercep- 
tion by  his  imprisonment.  But  that  is  not  in  accordance  with 
the  symbol.  There  is  no  analogy  between  his  being  bound  with 
a  chain,  hurled  down  into  a  bottomless  abyss,  and  shut  in,  so 
that  he  can  no  longer  exert  a  tempting  influence  on  the  nations ; 
and  his  being  left  unfettered,  unimprisoned,  and  only  ver)'-  par- 
tially withheld  from  exerting  such  an  agency.  Those  authors 
refer  his  binding  to  past  ages, — Archbishop  Usher  dating  it  from 
the  birth  or  ascension  of  Christ ;  Grotius,  Dr.  Hammond,  and 
Cocceius,  from  the  reign  of  Constantino.  But  there  are  no  in- 
dications that  Satan  was  wholly  intercepted  from  exerting  a 
tempting  influence  on  the  nations  during  either  of  those  periods. 
So  far  from  it,  they  are  the  periods  exhibited  in  the  prophecy  as 
marked  by  the  greatest  depression  of  the  true  worshippers,  the 
usurpation  of  the  throne  and  prerogatives  of  God,  by  ecclesias- 
tical and  civil  rulers,  the  flight  of  the  woman  into  the  desert,  the 
apostasy  of  the  nationalized  church  to  idolatry,  and  the  persecu- 
tion of  the  saints. 

Mr.  Vint  and  Mr.  Bush,  regarding  the  devil  as  the  symbol  of 
paganism,  exhibit  the  abyss  into  which  he  w^as  banished,  as  de- 
noting the  regions  of  idolatry  exterior  to  Christendom.  But  as 
the  first  is  against  analogy,  a  living  being  having  no  adaptation 
to  represent  a  mere  system  of  opinions  or  agency,  so  the  latter 
is  inconsistent  with  the  mode  in  which  paganism  was  suppressed 
in  the  Roman  empire.  It  was  not  by  a  migration  of  pagan 
priests  and  worshippers  from  the  empire  into  southern  Africa, 
eastern  and  northern  Asia,  or  the  north  of  Europe,* that  pagan- 
ism disappeared  from  the  Roman  world  ;  but  first  by  the  conver- 
sion of  vast  multitudes  to  faith  in  Christianity,  and  at  length  by 
the  legal  prohibition  of  idolatrous  rites.  Mr.  Bush  refers  his 
binding  to  the  age  of  Theodosius  ;  Mr.  Vint,  to  that  of  Charle- 
magne ; — but  as  the  event  of  which  they  interpret  it,  is  not  that 
which  it  denotes,  no  reason  is  left  for  assigning  it  to  those  periods. 


THE  FIRST  RESURRECTION.  517 

All  those  authors  assume  likewise  that  the  thousand  years  are 
not  symbolic,  but  denote  only  the  period  which  they  literally  ex- 
press. But  that,  as  has  already  been  shown,  is  to  disregard  the 
law  of  symbolization.  It  can  no  more  be  assumed  that  the  pe- 
riod of  the  imprisonment  is  not  symbolic,  than  that  the  impris- 
onment itself  is  not,  or  the  abyss. 


SECTION   LV. 

CHAPTER    XX.   4-6. 

THE    FIRST    RESURRECTION. 


And  I  saw  thrones  ; — and  they  sat  on  them  ;  and  judgment  was 
given  to  them  ; — and  the  souls  of  those  who  had  been  beheaded  for 
the  testimcmy  of  Jesus,  and  for  the  word  of  God,  and  whoever  had 
not  worshipped  the  wild  beast,  nor  its  image,  and  had  not  received 
the  mark  on  their  forehead  and  on  their  hand.  And  they  lived  and 
reigned  with  Christ  the  thousand  years.  But  the  rest  of  the  dead 
lived  not,  until  the  thousand  years  should  be  finished.  This  is  the 
first  resurrection.  Blessed  and  holy  is  he  who  has  part  in  the  first 
resurrection.  Over  them  the  second  death  has  no  power,  but  they 
shall  be  priests  of  God  and  of  Christ,  and  shall  reign  with  him  a 
thousand  years. 

The  order  in  which  the  objects  of  this  great  spectacle  are 
enumerated,  is  doubtless  that  in  which  they  were  presented  to 
the  apostle.  He  first  beheld  thrones,  and  a  multitude,  probably, 
as  the  martj^rs,  the  witnesses  of  Jesus,  and  the  saints  of  all  ages 
are  innumerable.  Next  august  forms  approached  and  sat  on  the 
thrones,  and  a  sentence  was  pronounced  on  them,  probably  ad- 
judging them  to  the  station  of  kings  and  priests  in  Christ's  king- 
dom on  the  earth.  Then  he  distinguished  among  them,  first 
the  martyrs  who  had  been  slain  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus  and 
for  the  word  of  God  ;  and  next  those  who  had  not  worshipped  ihe 
wild  beast,  nor  its  image,  nor  received  its  mark  on  their  foreiiead, 
or  their  hand  ;  and  finally  learned  that  the  spectacle  was  a  sym- 
bol of  the  first  resurrection,  that  they  who  were  then  to  be 
raised  were  to  reign  with  Christ  the  thousand  years,  that  they 
were  to  be  forever  freed  from  liability  to  the  second  death,  and 
that  the  rest  of  the  dead  were  not  to  live  till  the  thousand  years 
should  be  finished. 


518  THE  FIRST  RESURRECTION. 

As  thrones  are  llie  stations  on  whicli  kings  exercise  their  office 
as  judges  and  executors  of  law,  their  elevation  to  thrones  indi- 
cates their  appointment  to  office  as  kings.  As  their  authority  is  not 
to  be  founded  in  any  degree  on  the  will  of  those  over  whom  they 
are  to  reign,  but  is  to  be  the  sovereign  gift  of  Christ,  it  obviously 
is  to  be  exercised  wholly  in  subordination  to  him.  They  are  to 
reign  with  him  and  under  him  as  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords, 
communicating  his  will  to  his  subjects,  vindicating  his  rights,  and 
unfolding  his  great  designs.  Tliey  are  to  be  priests  of  God  and 
of  Christ,  acting  in  that  relation  as  representatives  ot  those  over 
whom  they  reign,  and  presenting,  perliaps,  in  his  i^resence  sym- 
bols of  homage  in  their  behalf. 

The  souls  of  the  martyrs  and  others  were  their  souls  by  sym- 
bolization,  not  their  souls  literally,  inasmuch  as  many  of  them 
were  not  then  in  existence.  They  were  exhibited  in  their  own 
persons,  not  by  a  symbol  of  a  different  species,  because  no  S3'm- 
bol  of  a  different  species  could  adequately  represent  them.  No 
other  beings  are,  or  are  to  be  subjects  of  such  a  change  of  nature, 
or  to  sustain  such  relations  to  Christ,  as  are  the  saints  who  are 
to  be  raised  from  death  in  glory  and  exalted  to  thrones  in  his 
kingdom.  They  are  exhibited  as  souls,  not  as  glorified  saints, 
because  they  only  are  to  be  subjects  of  the  first  resurrection  ; 
though  saints  who  are  to  live  at  tiiat  epoch,  are  to  be  raised  by 
transfiguration  to  a  similar  glory.  That  none  but  they  who  are 
to  be  raised  are  represented  in  this  spectacle,  may  be  regarded 
as  indicating  that  the  transfiguration  of  the  living  saints,  is  not  to 
take  place  till  a  later  period. 

The  specific  enumeration  of  martyrs,  and  whoever  had  not 
worshipped  the  wild  beast  nor  its  image,  nor  received  its  mark, 
does  not  imply  that  the  whole  were  of  those  classes.  They 
were  doubtless  but  a  part  of  tlie  vast  crowd.  They  who  sat  on 
the  thrones  and  received  judicial  authority,  symbolized  the  whole 
body  of  the  saints  who  had  died  of  all  former  ages  ;  inasmuch  as 
all  are  at  that  period  to  receive  their  reward  ;  as  we  are  shown  by 
the  chant  of  the  heavenly  hosts  on  the  sounding  of  the  seventh 
trumpet ; — the  time  of  the  dead  has  come,  to  judge  and  to  give 
the  reward  to  thy  servants  the  prophets,  and  the  saints,  and  those 
who  fear  thy  name,  both  the  small  and  the  great.  The  martyrs, 
and  whoever  had  not  worshipped  the  wild  beast  nor  its  image, 
nor  received  its  mark,  are  enumerated  probably  because  of  their 
peculiar  conspicuity  and  honors. 

They  symbolize  themselves  manifestly,  not  men  in  the  body, 
inasmuch  as  none  but  the  dead  are  capable  of  a  resurrection;  and 


THE  FIRST  RESURRECTION.  519 

none  but  llie  disembodied  saints  of  all  ages  whom  they  represent, 
exist  to  be  raised  to  glory.  It  is  not  in  violation  of  analogy,  but 
in  accordance  with  it,  that  they  symbolize  themselves,  inasmuch 
as  no  symbol  of  a  different  species  would  truly  represent  them. 
To  ascribe  a  resurrection  to  an  angel,  or  to  a  living  man,  were  to 
exhibit  him  as  the  subject  of  an  event  of  which  he  is  not  in  that 
condition  of  existence  capable,  and  were  to  violate  therefore  in- 
stead of  adhering  to  analogy. 

It  is  a  literal  resurrection  that  is  predicated  of  them  manifestly, 
inasmuch  as  that  is  the  only  resurrection  of  which  disembodied 
saints  are  capable.  It  certainly  is  not  a  renovation  of  heart,  as 
they  were  renewed  while  in  this  life,  and  are  made  priests  of 
God  and  of  Christ,  and  given  to  reign  with  him,  because  they 
were  saints  here.  As  their  resurrection  then  cannot  be  a  spirit- 
ual change  analogous  to  a  restoration  of  the  body  from  death, 
it  must  necessarily  be  a  corporeal  change.  That  it  is  to  be  a 
corporeal  resurrection,  is  shown  moreover  by  the  representation 
that  the  rest  of  the  dead  lived  not  till  the  thousand  years  should 
be  finished.  The  rest  of  the  dead  are  the  literally  dead,  not  the 
literally  living,  though  without  spiritual  life.  To  treat  that  term 
like  Mr.  Faber,  as  a  mere  metaphor,  is  to  deny  to  the  vision  the 
character  of  a  symbol,  and  empty  the  whole  passage  of  its  mean- 
ing. If  the  death  of  those  who  are  not  partakers  of  the  first  re- 
surrection, be  but  metaphorical,  then  must  the  death  of  the  mar- 
tyrs be  metaphorical  also,  and  thence  the  resurrection  which  is 
ascribed  to  the  souls  be  merely  metaphorical.  But  that  is  to 
make  the  passage  a  mere  assemblage  of  metaphors,  without  any 
thing  literal  from  which  the  figures  are  drawn,  or  to  which  they 
are  applied  ;  and  to  divest  it  of  all  propriety  and  significance. 
For  if  the  souls  of  the  dead,  as  well  as  the  resurrection,  be 
mere  metaphors,  no  agents  whatever  are  left  to  be  their  subjects. 
They  are  predicates  without  any  thing  of  which  they  arc  afHnned  ; 
metaphors  with  nothing  which  they  mctaphorize.  But  metaphors 
are  never  used  as  symbols,  nor  are  symbols  ever  used  to  fulfil 
the  office  of  mere  metaphors.  As  the  souls  exhibited  in  the  vi- 
sion then  are  real  souls,  so  also  for  the  same  reason,  the  rest  of 
the  dead  are  the  real  souls  of  the  rest  of  the  real  dead  ;  and  the 
resurrection  affirmed  of  the  one,  and  denied  of  the  other,  a  real 
resurrection,  as  there  is  no  resurrection  but  that  of  the  body  of 
which  the  unholy  dead  are  to  be  the  subjects,  any  more  than  the 
holy.  None  are  to  be  renewed  to  spiritual  life  after  having 
closed  their  probation  here.  Nothing  is  more  certain  therefore, 
than  that  the  symbohc  souls  of  this  vision,  represent  the  real 


520  THE   FIRST  RESURRECTION. 

souls  of  the  martyrs  and  other  saints,  that  the  resurrection  aflfirmed 
of  them  is  to  be  a  real  resurrection  from  death,  and  that  the  hon- 
ors and  authority  to  which  they  are  to  be  exalted,  are  those  of 
priests  and  kings  unto  God,  and  a  reign  with  Christ  during  the 
period  denoted  by  the  thousand  years. 

The  first  resurrection  then  is  to  be  the  resurrection  of  the 
saints  in  distinction  from  the  unholy  dead,  is  to  include  all  who 
have  died  in  faith  of  all  former  ages,  and  is  to  take  place  at  the 
advent  of  Christ  at  the  commencement  of  the  thousand  years. 
"  As  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive. 
But  every  man  in  his  own  order.  Christ  the  first-fruits,  after- 
wards they  that  are  Christ's  at  his  coming."  "  For  if  we  believe 
that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again,  even  so  those  also  who  sleep  in 
Jesus  will  God  bring  with  him.  For  the  Lord  himself  shall 
descend  from  heaven  with  a  shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  archan- 
gel, and  with  the  trump  of  God,  and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise 
first.'"^  The  thanksgiving  of  the  elders  at  the  sound  of  the  seventh 
trumpet,  represenjts  also  that  all  the  servants  of  God  are  then  to 
be  raised  and  receive  their  reward.  And  that  all  who  share  in 
the  first  resurrection,  are  to  reign  also  with  Christ,  is  shown  by 
the  assurance  that  they  are  blessed  and  holy,  that  over  them  the 
second  death  has  no  power,  and  that  they  shall  be  priests  of  God 
and  of  Christ,  and  shall  reign  with  him  the  thousand  years.  That 
the  second  death  has  no  power  over  them,  denotes  that  they  are 
released  by  forgiveness  from  the  penalty  of  sin,  and  adopted  as 
heirs  and  joint-heirs  with  Christ. 

The  thousand  years,  are  those  during  which  Satan  is  to  be 
bound,  and  denote  a  period  of  three  hundred  and  sixty  thousand. 

This  great  spectacle  thus  foreshows  that  all  the  holy  dead  are 
to  be  raised  in  glory  anterior  to  the  millennial  reign  of  Christ, 
pubhcly  adjudged  to  thrones  in  his  kingdom  during  the  thousand 
years,  and  to  reign  with  him  as  kings  and  as  priests  through  the 
vast  succession  of  ages  symbolized  by  that  period. 

Vitringa  interprets  the  resurrection  and  exaltation  to  thrones 
of  the  martyrs  and  others  exhibited  in  this  vision,  as  denoting,  not 
that  they  are  to  be  literally  raised  from  the  dead  and  invested 
with  authority,  but  simply  that  they  are  to  be  vindicated  in  the 
judgment  of  men  from  the  injurious  imputations  under  which 
they  were  condemned.  But  that  is  not  in  accordance  with  the 
law  of  symbolization.  There  is  no  adaptation  in  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  saints  from  death,  and  exaltation  to  thrones  in  Christ's 
kingdom,  to  represent  a  change  in  the  opinions  of  men  respecting 

^  1  Corinth,  xv.  22,  23  ;  1  Tliossalon.  iv.  14,  IG. 


THE  FIRST  RESURRECTION.  521 

them.  The  saints  are  not  the  subjects  of  that  change,  but  the 
men  who  adopt  the  new  opinion.  Nor  is  there  any  analogy  be- 
tween the  events.  The  one  is  a  change  of  nature,  the  other  of 
mere  agency. 

Dr.  Whitby's  and  Mr.  Faber's  interpretation,  who  regard  the 
resurrection  of  the  saints  as  merely  representing  an  adoption  and 
exhibition  by  others  of  their  principles  and  spirit,  is  in  like  man- 
ner wholly  in  violation  of  the  law  of  symbols,  as  it  makes  bodies 
representatives  of  principles  and  dispositions,  living  agents  of 
species  of  thought  and  affection,  between  which  there  is  no  anal- 
ogy. If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  be  held  that  the  souls  in  this  vis- 
ion symbolize,  not  mere  principles,  or  dispositions,  but  men  of 
similar  principles  and  spirit,  who  are  to  arise  and  live  on  tiie  earth 
through  the  period  denoted  by  the  thousand  years,  tlien,  inas- 
much as  the  characteristics  of  the  symbols  are  indicative  of  the 
characteristics  of  those  whom  they  represent,  it  must  also  be  as- 
sumed that  they  are  to  live  and  exhibit  their  principles  in  similar 
or  analogous  circumstances,  and  experience  a  similar  treatment 
from  their  cotemporaries.  Otherwise  martyrdom  and  a  refusal 
to  worship  the  wild  beast  and  tlie  image,  cannot  become  their 
characteristics.  Those,  therefore,  who  were  beheaded,  must  on 
that  assumption  foreshow,  that  those  whom  they  represent  are 
also  to  be  martyred,  as  much  as  that  they  are  to  have  the  spirit 
of  martyrs  :  those  who  had  not  worshipped  the  wild  beast  nor  its 
image,  must  foreshow  that  those  whom  they  represent  are  to  dis- 
play a  similar  fidelity  to  God  by  refusing  submission  to  the  as- 
sumption of  his  rights  by  usurping  civil  rulers  and  apostate  ec- 
clesiastics ;  whilst  those  who  were  of  the  ages  before  the  flood, 
of  the  patriarchs,  and  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation,  must  denote  that 
those  whom  they  symbolize  are  to  live  under  similar  laws,  in  the 
same  or  analogous  conditions,  and  exert  a  similar  obedience 
through  the  period  denoted  by  the  thousand  years.  But  that  is 
not  only  in  'contradiction  to  the  prophecy,  but  is  impossible. 
Men  are  not  again  to  live  under  the  antediluvian,  patriarchal,  or 
Mosaic  law. 

Mr.  Vint  and  Mr.  Bush  regarding  this  thousand  years  as  coin- 
cident with  that  to  which  they  refer  the  restraint  of  Satan,  exhibit 
the  thrones  as  the  thrones  of  the  European  kingdoms  ;  those  who 
sat  on  them  as  their  monarchs  ;  and  the  souls  of  martyrs  and  oth- 
ers, as  denoting  men  on  earth,  who  during  that  period,  fulfilled  the 
office  of  witnesses  and  suffered  martyrdom  for  the  word  of  God. 
But  that  construction  is  in  several  relations  inconsistent  with  the 
law  of  svmbolization.      It  is  founded  on  the  assumption  that  Sa- 

66 


522  THE    RELEASE    OF    SATAN. 

tan,  an  intelligent  agent,  is  the  symbol  of  paganism,  a  mere  sys- 
tem of  doctrines  and  agencies,  between  which  there  is  no  analo- 
gy. It  is  equally  against  analogy,  to  interpret  disembodied  souls 
as  symbols  of  men  on  earth.  The  mode  of  existence,  the  scene, 
the  relations  to  God  and  to  fellow  men,  and  the  law  of  duty,  are 
wholly  dissimilar.  It  is  against  analogy  also,  to  interpret  their 
being  disembodied,  as  denoting  that  those  whom  they  represent 
were  to  be  disembodied  by  martyrdom  ;  actions  alone  being  sym- 
bols of  actions,  and  events  of  events.  Mere  agents  are  never  rep- 
resentatives of  actions,  sufferings,  or  changes  in  the  mode  of  ex- 
istence. There  is  no  suitableness  in  the  one  to  indicate  the  oth- 
er. The  souls  are,  moreover,  expressly  represented  as  the  souls 
of  those  who  had  already  been  beheaded,  not  of  those  who  were 
to  suffer  martyrdom  during  the  thousand  years.  In  like  manner, 
those  who  were  not  worshippers  of  the  wild  beast,  were  such  as 
had  not  in  a  previous  existence  worshipped  it,  not  such  as  in  a 
future  existence  were  to  refuse  submission  to  that  antichristian 
power.  The  only  agency  affirmed  of  them  during  the  thousand 
years,  is,  that  they  reigned  with  Christ  during  that  period.  That 
the  thousand  years  are  not  cotemporaneous  with  the  reign  of  the 
wild  beast  and  included  in  that  period,  is  indisputable  from  the 
excess  of  the  former  over  the  latter.  The  triumph  of  the  wild 
beast  is  limited  to  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years,  but  the  reign 
of  Christ  and  the  saints  is  to  extend  through  three  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand. 


SECTION  LVI. 

CHAPTER    XX.    7-10. 
THE    RELEASE    OF    SATAN. 


And  when  the  thousand  years  shall  be  finished,  Satan  shall  be 
loosed  from  his  prison,  and  shall  go  forth  to  seduce  the  nations  which 
are  in  the  four  corners  of  the  earth,  Gog  and  Magog,  to  gather  them 
to  battle,  the  number  of  whom  [is]  as  the  sand  of  the  sea.  And  they 
went  up  on  to  the  breadth  of  the  earth,  and  surrounded  the  camp  of 
the  saints  and  the  beloved  city.  And  fire  descended  from  God  out 
of  heaven,  and  devoured  them.  And  the  devil  who  seduces  them 
was  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire  and  brimstone,  where  also  the  wild  beast 
and  false  prophet  [had  been  cast,]  and  they  shall  be  tormented  day 
and  night,  forever  and  ever. 


THE  RELEASE  OF  SATAN.  523 

Satan  is  here  doubtless,  as  in  the  vision  of  his  binding,  a  sym 
bol  of  the  whole  body  of  the  fallen  angels,  and  his  emergence 
from  prison,  of  their  release  universally  and  return  to  the  seduc- 
tion of  men  on  earth.  Gog  and  Magog  arc  regarded  by  interpre- 
ters generally  as  the  nations  of  northern  Asia,  and  are  expressly 
represented  by  Ezekiel,  chapter  xxxix.  2,  as  to  come  from  the 
north.  The  beloved  city  is  the  new  Jerusalem,  which  is  the  sym- 
bol, as  will  be  shown  in  the  exposition  of  the  next  chapter,  of  the 
glorified  saints  in  their  relations  to  unglorified  men,  of  priests  and 
kings,  as  great  Babylon  is  the  symbol  of  the  priests  and  ru- 
lers of  the  apostate  hierarchies.  The  camp  of  the  saints,  proba- 
bly denotes  the  subordinate  unglorified  rulers  of  the  obedient  na- 
tions. Satan's  enticing  Gog  and  Magog  to  gather  together  to  bat- 
tle, denotes  accordingly  his  enticing  them  to  resist  and  endeavor 
to  subvert  the  rule  both  of  the  glorified  and  the  unglorified  saints, 
and  to  elevate  themselves  into  their  place.  That  it  is  by  his  in- 
fluence that  they  are  to  be  excited  to  war,  indicates  that  they  had 
before  been  universally  obedient.  That  they  ascended  on  to  the 
breadth  of  the  earth,  denotes  that  they  advanced  from  the  north 
towards  the  equator,  and  indicates  that  the  visionary  earth  exhib- 
ited to  the  apostle,  corresponded  to  the  real  one  as  a  globe.  That 
is  implied  also  in  the  next  vision,  in  which  he  beheld  the  motions 
of  the  earth  and  the  planets,  as  well  as  their  forms.  The  descent 
of  fire  from  heaven  on  the  rcvolters,  denotes  that  they  are  to  be 
destroyed  like  the  wild  beast  and  false  prophet,  not  by  ordinary 
instruments,  but  immediately  by  the  hand  of  the  almigiity  Re- 
deemer ;  and  the  dejection  of  Satan  into  the  lake  of  fire  to  be  for- 
ever tormented,  that  he  and  his  legions  are  thereafter  to  be  pre- 
cluded from  the  earth  and  all  other  obedient  orbs,  and  consigned 
to  the  chains  and  darkness  of  the  abyss. 

This  prophecy,  then,  foreshows  that  after  the  risen  saints  have 
reigned  with  Christ  the  three  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  years, 
Satan  and  his  legions  are  to  be  allowed  again  to  return  to  the 
earth  and  tempt  men  ;  that  seduced  by  them,  remote  nations  arc 
to  revolt  from  the  sway  of  the  saints  which  Christ  has  established 
over  them,  and  attempt  to  exalt  themselves  to  supreme  authori- 
ty ;  and  that  they  are  to  be  destroyed  by  a  direct  mterposilion  of 
the  eternal  Word,  and  the  tempting  angels  thereafter  consigned 
to  perpetual  imprisonment  in  hell. 

This  release  of  Satan  is  referred  by  Grotius,  and  those  who 
follow  him,  in  the  exposition  of  other  parts  of  the  prophecy,  to 
the  fourteenth  century,  when  the  Ottoman  Turks,  whom  he  re- 
garded as  symbolized  by  Gog  and  JNIagog,  invaded  the  eastern 


524  THE  RESURRECTION  AND  JUDGMENT 

and  western  empire.  But  the  wild  beast  had  not  emerged  from 
the  sea,  nor  the  false  prophet  from  the  land,  at  the  elevation  of 
Constantine,  from  which  he  dates  the  thousand  years  :  Satan 
was  not  then  bound,  nor  did  three  hundred  and  sixty  thousand 
years  intervene  between  the  fourth  and  the  fourteenth  centuries. 


SECTION   LVII. 

CHAPTER    XX.    11-15. 

THE  RESURRECTION  AND  JUDGMENT  OF  THE  UNHOLY  DEAD. 

And  I  saw  a  great  white  throne,  and  him  who  sat  on  it,  from  whose 
face  the  earth  and  the  heavens  fled,  and  no  place  was  found  for  them. 
And  I  saw  the  dead,  small  and  great,  standing  before  the  throne,  and 
books  were  opened,  and  another  book  was  opened,  which  is  of  life. 
And  the  dead  were  judged  from  the  things  written  in  the  books  ac- 
cording to  their  works.  And  the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  who  were 
in  it;  and  death  and  the  grave  gave  up  the  dead  who  were  in  them. 
And  every  one  was  judged  according  to  their  works.  And  death 
and  the  grave  were  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire.  This  is  the  second 
death,  the  lake  of  fire.  And  as  any  one  was  not  found  written  in 
the  book  of  life,  he  was  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire. 

The  flight  of  the  earth  from  the  presence  of  the  Judge,  indi- 
cates that  the  scene  of  the  judgment  was  at  a  distance  from  its 
orbit.  In  the  other  visions  in  which  it  had  been  exhibited,  it  ap- 
pears to  have  been  represented  as  stationary,  and  necessarily,  in 
order  that  the  symbolic  agents  might  exert  their  agency  in  the 
apostle's  sight.  But  as  the  subjects  of  this  vision  were  on  their 
resurrection  withdrawn  from  the  eartii,  no  such  reason  remained 
for  its  continued  presence,  and  its  flight  accordingly,  and  that  of 
the  planets,  was  that  doubtless  of  their  real  motion  around  their 
orbits.  That  no  place  was  found  for  them,  denotes  simply  there- 
fore that  they  continued  in  motion. 

The  dead,  small  and  great,  who  stood  before  the  throne,  had 
been  raised  from  death,  manifestly  from  the  sea's  giving  up  the 
dead  that  were  in  it,  and  death  and  the  grave  the  dead  tliat  were 
in  them ;  as  they  are  the  bodies  of  the  dead  only,  not  their  souls 
which  descend  into  the  sea  and  the  grave,  or  remain  unburied  in 
the  realms  of  death. 

The  books  are  symbols  of  the  perfect  knowledge  of  the  Al- 


OF  THE    UNHOLY  DEAD.  525 

mighty  of  all  the  actions  of  those  who  are  judged,  and  llicir  be 
ing  opened  denotes  his  manifestation  to  them  of  that  knowledge, 
and  demonstration  to  their  consciousness  that  his  judgment  of 
them  is  according  to  their  works. 

Death  is  exhibited,  not  as  an  agent,  but  as  the  place  of  the  un- 
buried  dead  ;  obviously  from  the  representation  that  the  dead 
were  in  it.  It  gave  up  the  dead  that  were  in  it,  as  the  sea  and 
the  grave  gave  up  the  dead  that  were  in  them  ;  and  as  they  con- 
tain all  the  buried  dead,  those  who  were  not  in  their  domains, 
but  the  realms  of  death,  must  be  the  unburied  dead.  If  death 
were  exhibited,  not  as  a  realm,  but  as  an  agent,  no  reason  could 
exist  for  representing  the  dead  in  the  sea  and  the  grave  as  not 
under  its  dominion,  as  much  as  the  unburied.  All  would  in- 
disputably be  equally  its  captives.  Death,  moreover,  cannot  be 
a  living  agent,  like  the  form  on  the  pale  horse  under  the  fourth 
seal,  inasmuch  as  it  would  then  necessarily,  by  the  law  of  sym- 
bols, represent  living  agents  who  had  been  causes  to  men  of 
spiritual  death,  and  its  giving  them  up  would  indicate  their  re- 
storation to  spiritual  life.  But  no  such  agents  can  be  supposed 
to  have  any  bodies  of  the  dead  under  their  dominion  in  any  such 
manner  as  the  grave  contains  those  which  are  buried  in  it ;  nor 
are  those  who  are  given  up  restored  to  spiritual  life.  There  are 
no  such  agents  besides  Satan  and  his  legions,  and  the  impenitent 
dead  themselves,  neither  of  whom  can  be  supposed  to  be  sym- 
bolized in  that  relation  in  this  vision.  The  fallen  angels  had 
already  been  consigned  to  the  abyss  of  punishment ;  and  the 
apostate  teachers  who  are  symbolized  by  the  shape  on  the  pale 
horse,  and  all  others  who  go  to  the  grave  anterior  to  the  advent 
of  Christ,  are  to  be  among  the  dead  who  arc  to  stand  before  the 
throne,  and  cannot  therefore  be  supposed  to  be  represented  again 
by  a  separate  symbol.  And  finally,  this  construction  is  confirmetl 
by  the  symbolization  of  the  second  death  by  a  place,  not  by  an 
agent.  This  is  the  second  death,  the  lake  of  fire.  The  lake  o{ 
fire  is  everywhere  exhibited  as  the  symbol  of  the  place  to  whicli 
fallen  angels  and  impenitent  men  arc  everlastingly  consigned,  and 
their  dejection  into  that  lake,  their  precipitation  to  that  place. 
The  dejection  of  death  and  the  grave  into  that  lake,  denotes  that 
no  place  of  the  dead  is  any  more  to  exist  on  earth. 

AH  the  impenitent  dead  of  all  ages  are  to  be  the  subjects  of 
this  resurrection  and  judgment.  Whoever  was  not  found  writ- 
ten in  the  book  of  life  was  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire.  And  they 
only  are  to  be  its  subjects,  manifestly  from  the  representation  in 
the  vision  of  the  souls  of  the  saints,  that  all  the  holy  who  die  an- 


526  THE  RESURRECTION,  ETC, 

terior  to  the  millennium,  are  to  be  raised  at  its  commencement, 
and  reign  with  Christ  throughout  that  period  ;  and  the  repre- 
sentation in  the  next  vision,  that  none  are  during  that  period  to 
suffer  the  infliction  of  death.  That  none  but  such  as  are  written 
in  the  book  of  life  are  saved,  indicates  that  none  turn  from  re- 
volt and  embrace  the  redemption  through  Christ,  but  those  who 
were  chosen  by  him  to  salvation  from  before  the  foundation  of 
the  world,  and  are  converted  and  upheld  in  obedience  by  his 
sovereign  grace. 

Mr.  Bush  interprets  this  spectacle,  not  as  a  representation  ot 
a  real  corporeal  resurrection,  and  public  and  general  judgment 
of  the  impenitent  dead,  but  as  a  mere  figurative  indication  that 
each  individual  is  judged  on  his  entering  the  invisible  world. 
But  that  is  wholly  to  deny  it  its  proper  character  as  a  symbol, 
and  thence  to  divest  it  of  all  its  peculiar  meaning.  If,  as  he 
assumes,  the  throne  is  a  mere  figure,  and  the  being  who  sat  on  it, 
then  for  the  same  reason  must  they  also  who  stood  before  him,  and 
his  act  of  judging  them,  be  mere  figures.  But  that  is  to  convert 
the  whole  scene  into  an  unmeaning  shadow.  There  is  neither  a 
judge,  subjects  of  judgment,  nor  a  judicial  act ;  for  if  the  agent 
be  discarded,  no  action  can  remain  ;  and  if  neither  judge,  nor  ju- 
dicial sentence,  no  subjects  on  whom  a  sentence  is  pronounced. 
But  if  we  may  assume  that  this  vision  has  no  symbolic  meaning, 
if  it  forms  no  representation  that  Christ  is  visibly  to  manifest 
himself  enthroned  as  the  judge  of  men,  that  all  who  remain  dead 
at  the  end  of  the  thousand  years,  and  die  during  the  revolt  which 
Satan  is  subsequently  to  excite,  are  then  to  be  raised,  visibly  as- 
sembled before  him,  and  receive  a  public  judgment  according  to 
their  deeds,  why  may  we  not  equally  assume  that  none  of  the 
other  agents  or  agencies  exhibited  in  the  visions  have  a  S3^mbolic 
character  ?  What  proof  is  there  that  the  wild  beast  and  false 
prophet  are  representatives  of  real  agents  that  were  to  appear  on 
the  earth,  and  exert  an  agency  analogous  to  that  which  is  as- 
cribed to  those  symbols  ?  What  proofs  that  the  symbols  of  the 
seals,  the  trumpets,  and  the  vials,  are  representative  of  real 
agents  and  agencies  ?  There  is  clearly  no  medium  between  ad- 
mitting the  law  that  each  symbolic  agent  is  representative  of  a 
real  agent,  and  each  act  of  a  symbolic  agent  representative  of  a 
real  act,  and  the  rejection  of  the  book  as  without  any  intelligible 
significance. 


THE  NEW  HEAVEN  AND  NEW  EARTH.  527 


SECTION  LVIII. 

CHAPTER    XXI.    1-8. 

THE  NEW  HEAVEN  AND  NEW  EARTH. 

And  I  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth;  for  the  first  heaven 
and  the  first  earth  were  passed  away,  and  the  sea  is  no  more. 
And  the  holy  city,  new  Jerusalem,  I  saw  descending  out  of  heaven 
froni  God,  prepared  as  a  bride  adorned  for  her  husband.  And  I 
beard  a  loud  voice  from  heaven,  saying,  Behold  the  tabernacle  of 
God  with  men !  and  he  shall  dwell  in  a  tent  with  them ;  and  they 
shall  be  his  people,  and  God  himself  shall  be  with  them,  their  God ; 
and  God  shall  wipe  every  tear  from  their  eyes,  and  death  shall  be 
no  more ;  nor  shall  sorrow,  nor  crying,  nor  toil  be  any  more  ;  for 
the  former  things  were  passed  away.  And  he  who  sat  on  the 
throne,  said,  Behold  I  make  all  things  new.  And  he  said,  Write 
that  these  words  are  faithful  and  true.  And  he  said  to  me,  It  is 
done.  I  am  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega,  the  beginning  and  the  end. 
I  will  give  to  him  that  thirsts  of  the  fountain  of  the  water  of  life 
freely.  He  that  overcomes  shall  inherit  these  things  ;  and  I  will 
be  God  to  him,  and  he  shall  be  a  son  to  me.  But  to  the  cowardly, 
and  faithless,  and  defiled,  and  murderers,  and  fornicators,  and  sor- 
cerers, and  idolaters,  and  all  the  false,  their  part  [is]  in  the  lake 
which  burns  with  fire  and  brimstone,  which  is  the  second  death. 

The  heaven,  earth,  and  sea,  arc  undoubtedly  here,  as  under 
the  trumpets  and  vials,  symbolic.  The  new  heaven  represents 
rulers  of  a  new  order ;  the  new  earth,  subjects  of  a  new  cha- 
racter ;  and  the  disappearance  of  the  sea,  that  the  nations  are 
no  more  to  be  excited  to  violent  agitations  by  the  storms  of  re- 
volt, revolution,  and  war. 

The  new  Jerusalem  is  the  symbol  of  the  raised  and  glorified 
saints,  in  their  relations  to  men  as  kings  and  priests  who  arc  to 
reign  with  Christ.  It  does  not  denote  a  literal  city  manifestly, 
as  that  were  to  make  the  symbol  and  tiiat  which  it  represents, 
of  the  same  species ;  but  is  an  organization  of  rulers  extending 
a  beneficent  authority  and  influence  over  those  whom  they  gov- 
ern, analogous  to  the  shelter  of  a  city  to  those  who  dwell  be- 
neath its  roofs  ;  and  must  tiierefore  denote  the  risen  saints  as 
kings  and  priests,  as  they  alone  arc  to  descend  from  heaven  to 
earth,  and   exercise  a  sway  over  men.     It  is  accordingly  ex- 


528  THE  NEW  HEAVEN  AND  NEW  EARTH. 

pressly  denominated  in  a  subsequent  vision,  the  bride  the  Lamb's 
wife,  by  whom  in  a  former  vision  the  risen  and  glorified  saints 
are  symbohzed  ;  and  is  shown  to  be  their  representative  by  the 
inscription  of  the  names  of  the  twelve  apostles  on  its  founda- 
tions. In  accordance  with  this,  it  is  said  by  the  living  creatures 
and  elders,  who  are  the  symbols  of  the  redeemed  of  every  tribe, 
and  tongue,  and  people,  and  nation,  during  their  intermediate 
state,  that  they  are  kings  to  God  and  priests,  and  shall  reign  on 
the  earth  ;  is  promised  by  the  Redeemer  to  whoever  is  victo- 
rious, that  he  will  write  on  him  the  name  of  the  city  of  God,  the 
new  Jerusalem  which  descends  out  of  heaven,  which  denotes, 
doubtless,  that  he  shall  be  one  of  the  polity  which  that  city  rep- 
resents ;  and  the  saints  are  exhibited  in  the  vision  of  the  first 
resurrection,  as  raised  from  death,  exalted  to  thrones,  and  reign- 
ing with  Christ  during  the  thousand  years.  It  is  thus  shown, 
on  the  one  hand,  that  the  glorified  saints  are  to  descend  and 
reign  with  Christ  on  the  earth,  and  that  this  city  symbolizes 
them  ;  while  on  the  other,  no  intimation  is  given  of  such  a  de- 
scent to  our  world  of  any  other  order  of  beings.  It  is  indisputa- 
bly therefore  the  representative  of  the  redeemed  who  are  to 
reign  as  kings  and  priests  with  Christ,  in  like  manner  as  great 
Babylon,  the  antagonist  city,  is  a  symbol  of  the  apostate  ru- 
lers of  the  church  who  usurp  his  throne  on  earth.  Accord- 
ino-ly,  as  the  risen  saints  are  denominated  the  Lamb's  wife,  and 
are  said  to  have  prepared  themselves,  so  this  city  is  said  to  be 
prepared  as  a  bride  for  her  husband. 

It  is  denominated  the  tabernacle  of  God  with  men,  and  is 
promised  that  he  will  dwell  in  a  tent  with  them,  and  that  they 
shall  be  his  people,  and  that  he  himself  will  be  with  them,  their 
God  ;  which  denotes  both  that  the  glorified  saints  are  to  be  visi- 
ble to  men,  as  a  tent  is  visible  to  those  in  whose  presence  it  is 
stationed,  and  that  God  is  to  be  visibly  present  with  the  glorified 
saints ;  as  his  presence  in  the  ancient  temple  was  manifested 
when  it  was  filled  with  the  smoke  and  flame  of  his  glory.  Men 
universally  are  to  be  sanctified,  to  own  and  honor  him  as  God, 
and  to  enjoy  manifestations  of  his  presence  and  favor.  He  is  to 
wipe  every  tear  from  their  eyes.  They  are  no  more  to  be  sub- 
jected to  death,  nor  know  any  thing  of  sorrow,  mourning,  or 
toil.  All  the  forms  of  penal  evil,  brought  on  the  race  by  the 
fall,  are  to  cease,  and  all  things  become  new.  It  is  he  who  is  a 
victor  that  is  to  share  in  the  bliss  and  glory  of  this  reign  with 
Christ.  The  unholy  of  all  classes  are  to  be  excluded  from  it, 
and  consigned  to  the  abyss  of  misery. 


THE  NEW  JERUSALEM.  529 

How  unlike  his  former  dispensations  towards  men,  is  the 
sway  of  Christ  to  be  during  this  period  !  How  changed  their 
condition,  freed  from  the  wants,  the  necessities  of  toil,  and  the 
inquietudes  and  sorrows  to  which  they  were  subjected  by  the 
revolt  of  the  first  pair  !  How  intimate  the  relation  to  him  to 
which  they  are  to  be  restored,  and  the  intercourse  they  are  to 
enjoy  with  the  glorified  saints  who  attend  in  his  presence  !  How 
vast  the  demonstration  which  is  thus  to  be  made  of  the  adapta- 
tion of  their  nature  to  his  service,  notwithstanding  the  fall ;  and 
of  the  lofty  degrees  of  wisdom,  rectitude,  and  blessedness,  of 
which  they  are  capable  !  And  how  suited  that  demonstration  to 
vindicate  his  sway  over  them  in  preceding  ages,  and  refute  the 
accusations  and  misapprehensions  of  his  government,  of  which 
men  have  been  guilty  ! 

The  descent  of  the  city  is  to  take  place  at  the  commencement 
of  the  millennium,  manifestly  from  the  representation  that  the 
marriage  of  the  Lamb  was  come,  and  that  his  wife  had  prepared 
herself,  immediately  after  the  destruction  of  great  Babylon, 
chapter  xix.  7,  8  ;  from  the  exhibition  of  the  risen  and  glorified 
saints  as  seated  on  thrones  and  reigning  with  Christ  during  the 
thousand  years  ;  and  from  the  representation  of  the  beloved  city 
as  on  earth  at  the  revolt  of  Gog  and  Magog,  after  the  close  of 
the  thousand  years. 

That  there  is  to  be  no  death,  sorrow,  mourning,  nor  toil,  during 
that  period,  is  consistent  with  the  destruction  of  Gog  and  Ma- 
gog, inasmuch  as  their  revolt  is  to  take  place  after  the  millennium 
is  closed. 


SECTION  LIX. 

CHAPTER    XXL    9-27.    XXII.    1-5. 

THE    NEW    JERUSALEM. 

And  one  of  the  seven  angels  who  held  the  seven  vials,  which 
were  filled  with  the  last  seven  plagues,  came  and  talked  with  me, 
saying,  Come,  I  will  show  thee  the  bride,  the  Lamb's  wife.  And 
he  carried  me  in  Spirit  on  to  a  great  and  high  mountain,  and  showed 
me  the  holy  city  Jerusalem  descending  out  of  heaven  from  God, 
having  the  glory  of  God.  Its  splendor  was  like  a  most  precious 
stone,  as  a  crystal  jasper ;  having  a  great  and  high  wall,  having 
twelve  gates,  and  at  the  gates  twelve  angels,  and  names  inscribed 

67 


530  THE  NEW  JERUSALEM. 

which  are  of  the  twelve  tribes  of  the  sons  of  Israel :  on  the  east 
three  gates,  and  on  the  north  three  gates,  and  on  the  south  three 
gates,  and  on  the  west  three  gates  ;  and  the  wall  of  the  city  having 
twelve  foundations,  and  on  them  twelve  names  of  the  twelve  apos- 
tles of  the  Lamb.  And  he  who  talked  with  me  held  a  measure,  a 
golden  rod,  that  he  might  measure  the  city,  and  its  gates,  and  its 
wall.  And  the  city  lies  a  quadrangle,  and  its  length  is  the  same  as 
its  breadth.  And  he  measured  the  city  with  the  rod,  to  twelve 
thousand  furlongs.  The  length  of  it  is  equal,  and  the  breadth,  and 
the  height.  And  he  measured  the  wall  of  the  city,  a  hundred  forty- 
four  cubits  man's  measure,  which  is  the  angel's.  And  the  super- 
structure of  its  wall  was  jasper,  and  the  city  pure  gold,  like  pure 
crystal.  And  the  foundations  of  the  wall  of  the  city  were  adorned 
with  every  precious  stone.  The  first  foundation,  jasper ;  the  sec- 
ond, sapphire ;  the  third,  chalcedony ;  the  fourth,  emerald ;  the 
fifth,  sardonyx ;  the  sixth,  sardius ;  the  seventh,  chrysolite ;  the 
eighth,  beryl ;  the  ninth,  topaz  ;  the  tenth,  chrysoprase  ;  the  elev- 
enth, jacinth  ;  the  twelfth,  amethyst.  And  the  twelve  gates,  [were,] 
twelve  pearls.  Each  gate  was  of  one  pearl ;  and  the  broad  place 
of  the  city  was  pure  gold,  as  translucent  crystal. 

And  I  saw  no  temple  in  it,  for  the  Lord  God  Almighty  is  its  tem- 
ple, and  the  Lamb.  And  the  city  has  no  need  of  the  sun,  nor  the 
moon,  that  they  may  enlighten  it,  for  the  glory  of  God  enlightens  it, 
and  its  lamp  [is]  the  Lamb.  And  the  nations  shall  walk  by  its  light, 
and  the  kings  of  the  earth  bring  their  glory  and  honor  into  it.  And 
its  gates  shall  not  be  shut  by  day,  for  there  is  no  night  there.  And 
they  shall  bring  the  glory  and  the  honor  of  the  nations  into  it.  And 
nothing  shall  enter  it  that  is  unclean,  and  that  works  defilement  and 
falsehood,  but  they  only  who  are  written  in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life. 

And  he  showed  me  a  river  of  water  of  life,  pure  as  crystal,  pro- 
ceeding from  the  throne  of  God  and  the  Lamb.  In  the  midst  of  the 
broad  place,  and  on  each  side  of  the  river,  [was]  the  tree  of  life, 
bearing  twelve  fruits,  according  to  each  month  yielding  its  fruit,  and 
the  leaves  of  the  tree  for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  And  there 
shall  be  no  curse  any  more.  And  the  throne  of  God  and  the  Lamb 
shall  be  in  it.  And  his  servants  shall  serve  him.  And  they  shall 
see  his  face,  and  his  name  [shall  be]  on  their  foreheads.  And  there 
shall  be  no  night  any  more,  and  they  shall  have  no  need  of  light  of 
lamp,  or  light  of  sun,  for  the  Lord  God  shall  shine  on  them,  and  they 
shall  reign  forever  and  ever. 

As  the  city  is  the  symbol  of  the  Lamb's  wife,  tlie  raised  and 
glorified  saints  adopted  as  joint-heirs  with  Christ,  exalted  to 
thrones  and  associated  with  him  in  his  reign  on  earth,  its  descent 
to  the  earth  symbolizes  their  descent  from  heaven  after  their  jus- 
tification and  investiture  as  kings  and  priests  in  his  empire.    The 


THE  NEW  JERUSALEM.  531 

splendor  of  the  elements  of  which  it  is  built,  denotes  the  beauty 
of  their  persons  and  the  perfection  of  their  character  ;  its  mag- 
nitude immensely  transcending  the  vastest  extent  over  which  the 
unaided  eye  can  discern  the  most  brilliant  objects  on  the  surface 
of  the  earth,  the  incomprehensible  greatness  of  their  multitude  ; 
and  the  regularity  of  its  form,  the  harmony  of  its  parts,  and  its 
massiveness  and  strength,  the  symmetry  of  their  relations  to  each 
other,  the  unity  of  their  spirit,  and  the  energy  of  their  sway. 
That  the  length  of  the  city  is  equal,  and  its  breadth  and  its 
height,  denotes  not  that  its  length,  breadth,  and  height  are  the 
same,  but  simply  that  its  length  is  the  same  at  all  points,  its 
breadth  the  same  at  all  points,  and  its  height  at  all  points  the 
same. 

The  gates  symbolize  the  access  to  the  glorified  which  the  na 
tions  are  to  enjoy.  That  they  are  distributed  equally  to  the 
several  sides,  indicates  that  they  are  to  be  accessible  alike  to  the 
nations  wherever  they  may  reside  ;  tiiat  there  is  to  be  no  night 
there,  that  they  are  never  to  be  without  the  visible  presence  of 
God  ;  that  its  gates  are  never  shut,  that  the  nations  are  to  enjoy 
uninterrupted  access  to  the  glorified  ;  and  that  an  angel  is  sta 
tioned  at  each  gate,  that  that  access  is  to  be  subject  to  conditions, 
and  regulated  by  an  exalted  order  assigned  to  that  office. 

The  twelve  tribes  of  the  sons  of  Israel  are  the  symbols  in  the 
vision  of  the  sealing  of  all  the  branches  or  families  of  pure 
worshippers.  The  inscription  of  the  names  of  those  tribes  on 
the  gates,  denotes,  accordingly,  that  all  branches  of  the  unglori- 
fied  race  are  to  have  access  to  the  glorified  saints,  but  each  with 
a  part  or  division  peculiarly  appropriated  to  themselves ;  as  in  a 
walled  city  inhabited  by  different  tribes,  the  inscription  on  sepa- 
rate gates  of  the  names  of  the  several  tribes,  would  imply  that 
each  tribe  was  to  pass  through  the  gate  distinguished  by  its 
name. 

In  the  temple  in  Jerusalem,  the  mercy-seat,  the  symbol  of  the 
throne  of  God  in  the  scene  of  the  visible  displays  of  his  pres- 
ence, was  in  the  holy  of  holies  wholly  withdrawn  from  the  sight 
of  the  worshippers,  and  beheld  only  by  the  high  priest,  once  a 
year.  That  there  is  no  temple  in  the  new  Jerusalem,  denotes, 
therefore,  that  the  presence  of  the  Redeemer  is  to  be  visible  to 
the  worshippers  at  large,  not,  as  under  the  Mosaic  dispensation, 
veiled  from  their  sight. 

As  the  sun  and  moon  are  symbols  of  the  supreme  legislative 
and  executive  rulers  in  a  state,  that  the  city  has  no  need  of  the 
sun  nor  the  moon  that  they  may  enlighten  it,  for  the  glory  of  God 


532  THE  NEW  JERUSALEM. 

enlightens  it,  and  its  lamp  is  the  Lamb,  denotes  that  it  is  to  have 
no  need  that  the  unglorified  or  glorified  saints  should  make  laws 
for  it,  as  God  is  to  be  its  lawgiver,  and  Christ  is  to  supply  it 
with  all  the  commands  and  counsels  its  exigences  are  to  require. 

That  the  nations  are  to  walk  by  its  light,  signifies  that  they  are 
to  be  guided  by  the  teachings  which  Christ  communicates  to  the 
glorified  saints.  That  the  kings  of  the  earth  bring  their  glory 
and  honor  into  it,  implies  that  the  chiefs  of  the  nations  are  to  ex- 
ercise their  office  in  perfect  subordination  to  the  saints  whom  it 
symbolizes,  and  employ  themselves  in  subserving  the  ends  which 
they  enjoin.  That  no  one  is  to  enter  it  that  is  unclean,  or  that 
works  defilement  or  falsehood,  indicates  that  sanctification  is 
requisite  in  order  to  that  relation  to  the  glorified  which  admission 
to  its  gates  denotes,  and  thence  as  all  nations  are  to  walk  in  its 
light,  that  the  race  is  universally  to  be  holy. 

The  river  of  the  water  of  life,  proceeding  from  the  throne  of 
God  and  the  Lamb,  is  the  symbol,  doubtless,  of  the  renewing 
and  sanctifying  influences  by  which  the  nations  are  to  be  im- 
bued with  spiritual  life.  The  leaves  of  the  tree  of  life,  which 
are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations,  symbolize  the  means  of  their 
restoration  from  mortality ;  and  the  fruit  of  that  tree,  the  pledge 
of  their  transfiguration  to  glory  ;  for  there  shall  be  no  curse  any 
more.  Every  individual  is  to  be  perfectly  redeemed  from  the 
dominion  of  sin,  and  freed  from  its  penalty.  That  the  throne  of 
God  and  of  the  Lamb  shall  be  in  it,  and  that  his  servants,  by 
whom  are  meant  the  nations  that  are  healed,  not  the  glorified 
saints  whom  the  city  symbolizes,  shall  serve  him,  and  shall  see 
his  face,  indicates  that  they  are  to  yield  a  perfect  submission  to 
his  authority,  and  to  enjoy  his  visible  presence. 

That  his  name  is  on  their  foreheads,  implies  that  they  are  to 
exhibit  the  clearest  evidence  that  they  are  truly  his  children. 
And  finally,  that  they  are  to  have  no  need  of  light  of  lamp  nor 
light  of  sun,  but  that  the  Lord  God  shall  shine  on  them,  as  he 
manifests  his  presence  to  the  glorified  saints,  and  that  they  shall 
reign  forever  and  ever,  denote  that  they  also  are  at  length  to 
have  no  need  of  any  teacher  but  God,  and  are  to  be  transfigured 
therefore  to  glory,  like  those  who  have  been  raised  from  death 
and  exalted  to  the  stations  of  kings  and  priests  in  his  kingdom. 


FINAL  COMMANDS  AND  WARNINGS.  533 

SECTION  LX. 

CHAPTER    XXII.    6-21. 

FINAL    COMMANDS    AND    WARNINGS. 

And  he  said  to  me,  These  words  are  faithful  and  true.  And  the 
Lord  God  of  the  spirits  of  the  prophets  sent  his  angel  to  show  to  his 
servants  what  must  come  to  pass  in  a  short  time.  And  behold  I 
come  quickly.  Blessed  is  he  who  keeps  the  words  of  the  prophecy 
of  this  book.  And  I  am  John  who  heard  and  saw  these  things  ;  and 
when  I  had  heard  and  seen,  I  fell  down  to  worship  at  the  feet  of  the 
angel  who  showed  me  these  things.  And  he  said  to  me.  See  thou 
do  it  not.  I  am  a  fellow-servant  of  thee,  and  of  thy  brethren  the 
prophets,  and  of  those  who  keep  the  words  of  this  book.  Worship 
God.  And  he  said  to  me,  Thou  mayest  not  seal  the  words  of  the 
prophecy  of  this  book ;  for  the  time  is  near ;  he  that  is  unjust,  let 
him  be  unjust  still ;  and  he  that  is  defiled,  let  him  be  defiled  still ; 
and  he  that  is  righteous,  let  him  work  righteousness  still  ;  and  he 
that  is  holy,  let  him  be  holy  still.  Behold,  I  come  quickly,  and  my 
reward  [is]  with  me  to  retribute  to  every  one  as  his  work  shall  be. 
I  am  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega,  first  and  last,  the  beginning  and  the 
end. 

Blessed  are  they  who  do  his  commands,  that  the  right  may  be 
theirs  to  the  tree  of  life,  and  that  they  may  enter  through  the  gates 
into  the  city.  The  dogs  are  without,  and  the  sorcerers,  and  the  for- 
nicators, and  the  murderers,  and  the  idolaters,  and  every  one  who 
loves  and  practices  falsehood. 

I,  Jesus,  have  sent  my  angel  to  testify  to  you  these  things  in  the 
churches.  I  am  the  root  and  the  offspring  of  David,  the  bright,  the 
morning  star.  And  the  Spirit  and  the  bride  say,  come.  And  he  who 
hears  let  him  say,  come  ;  and  he  who  thirsts,  let  him  come  ;  he 
who  will,  let  him  take  the  water  of  life  freely. 

I  testify  to  every  one  who  hears  the  words  of  the  prophecy  of  this 
book,  if  anyone  add  to  them,  God  will  add  to  him  the  plagues  which 
are  written  in  this  book.  And  if  any  one  take  from  the  words  of  the 
book  of  this  prophecy,  God  will  take  his  part  from  the  tree  of  life 
and  from  the  holy  city  which  are  written  in  this  book.  He  who  tes- 
tifies these  things  says.  Yea,  I  come  quickly.  Amen.  Come, 
Lord  Jesus.  The  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  all  the 
saints. 

That  the  words  of  the  prophecy  arc  faitliful  and  true,  denotes 
that  they  exhibit  a  true  representation  of  the  purposes  of  God, 


534  FINAL  COMMANDS  AND  WARNINGS. 

and  of  the  actors  and  events  of  which  the  world  was  soon  to  be- 
come the  scene,  and  are  to  be  perfectly  verified. 

The  things  that  were  soon  to  be,  are  the  whole  train  of  agen- 
cies foreshown  in  the  visions,  considered  as  one  series  or  act,  and 
were  nigh,  inasmuch  as  the  commencement  of  the  series  was 
near ;  in  the  same  manner  as  the  agencies  of  a  war  and  other  vast 
successions  of  events  that  sustain  an  intimate  relation  to  each 
other,  are  spoken  of  as  one,  and  said  to  be  nigh  events  and  pe- 
riods that  precede  them,  when  the  first  of  the  succession  is  near 
those  events  or  periods. 

The  homage  which  the  apostle  was  about  to  pay  to  the  angel, 
was  probably  not  of  adoration,  but  of  gratitude  merely,  for  his 
condescension  and  benignity  in  showing  him  the  great  things 
w^hich  were  soon  to  be,  and  especially  the  grandeurs  of  the  reign 
of  the  glorified  saints  with  Christ.  It  indicates  a  fervid  sense  of 
the  significance  of  the  visions  he  had  beheld,  the  vastness  and 
glory  of  the  Redeemer's  designs,  the  splendor  of  the  destiny  as- 
signed the  redeemed,  and  the  beauty  and  blessedness  to  which 
the  nations  are  to  be  exalted  under  his  sway.  The  angel  exhib- 
its in  his  reply  the  spirit  of  the  true  worshippers,  in  contrast  with 
the  usurpers  of  the  rights  of  God  and  their  idolatrous  vassals.  It 
was  God  who  appointed  him  to  that  work,  not  himself,  and  in 
fulfilling  it,  he  acted  in  the  same  relations  to  him  as  a  servant,  in 
which  the  apostle  himself,  the  prophets,  and  they  who  keep  the 
words  of  the  book  were  called  to  act,  in  fulfilling  their  oflSce  as 
his  witnesses. 

The  injunction,  thou  must  not  seal  the  words  of  the  prophecy 
of  this  book,  for  the  time  is  near  ;  he  that  is  unjust,  let  him  be  un- 
just still ;  is  addressed  to  the  prophet,  doubtless,  as  the  represen- 
tative of  the  witnesses  of  God  of  all  ages  :  and  its  import  is, 
Thou  must  not  withhold  from  the  church  nor  misrepresent  the 
revelation  of  this  book,  but  proclaim  it  in  its  truth,  representing 
those  as  unjust  whom  the  prophecy  exhibits  as  unjust,  and  those 
as  defiled,  whom  the  prophecy  represents  as  defiled,  and  those 
as  righteous  and  holy  to  whom  it  ascribes  that  character.  The 
Redeemer  enforces  this  injunction  by  the  annunciation  of  his  de- 
ity and  title  to  implicit  obedience,  and  the  assurance  that  he  is  to 
come  quickly,  to  retribute  to  every  one  as  his  work  shall  be. 

The  benediction  which  is  next  pronounced  on  those  who  obey 
his  commands,  is  a  benediction  of  those  who  are  to  live  under 
his  reign  after  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  the  glorified 
saints  on  earth,  manifestly  from  the  representation  that  they  are  to 
acquire  by  their  obedience  a  title  to  the  tree  of  life,  and  an  entrance 


FINAL  COMMANDS  AND  WARNINGS.  535 

through  the  gates  into  the  city.  They  are  to  follow  the  descent 
of  that  city,  therefore,  not  to  precede  it,  and  to  be  of  those  who 
enter  and  dwell  within  it,  not  of  those  who  constitute  tlie  city  it- 
self. They  are  to  include  the  whole  race,  inasmuch  as  all  oth- 
ers, the  dogs,  the  sorcerers,  the  fornicators,  the  murderers,  the 
idolaters,  and  whoever  loves  and  practices  falsehood,  are  to  be 
excluded,  and,  as  the  city  is  to  open  its  gates  to  all  nations,  to  be 
banisiied  from  tlie  earth. 

The  annunciation  that  he  who  sent  his  angel  to  testify  these 
things  to  the  churches,  is  Jesus,  the  Messiah  promised  to  the  an- 
cient prophets;  that  the  Spirit  and  the  bride  say,  come,  and  that 
whoever  hears  is  to  say,  come,  is  marked  by  a  beauty  and  gran- 
deur of  meaning  scarcely  surpassed  in  any  other  passage  of  the 
book.  As  the  saints,  who  are  the  bride,  do  not  in  their  interme- 
diate state,  address  men,  the  invitation  they  utter  is  to  be  referred 
to  their  reign  with  Christ  on  earth,  when  they  are  to  exercise  the 
office  of  kings  and  priests.  Tiiepassage  indicates  an  agency,  there- 
fore, they  are  to  exert  throughout  the  interminable  ages  of  redemp- 
tion. The  Root  and  the  Offspring  of  David,  the  bright,  the  morn- 
ing Star,  is  the  incarnate  Word,  who  is  to  reign  and  carry  on  the 
work  of  salvation  forever  and  ever.  The  Spirit  is  to  continue  his 
renewing  and  sanctifying  influence,  and  say  to  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  race,  as  they  are  summoned  from  age  to  age  in- 
to existence.  Come.  The  raised  and  transfigured  saints  are  to 
repeat  the  call  through  the  flight  of  everlasting  years,  and  the 
unglorified  also,  and  every  breast  be  filled  and  transported  with 
a  sense  of  the  infinitude  and  freeness  of  the  Saviour's  grace. 

The  terrific  threat  to  those  who  add  to  the  prophecy,  or  take 
from  it,  indicates  that  men  are  to  be  under  violent  temptation  to 
reject  or  misrepresent  it  in  order  to  evade  the  application  of  its 
predictions  to  themselves.  And  how  needful  to  presumption,  to 
parly  zeal,  and  to  ambition,  is  the  restraint  it  is  suited  to  impose  ! 
With  what  a  perverse  and  daring  spirit  have  not  a  few,  especial- 
ly of  the  friends  of  the  nationalized  hierarchies,  set  aside  the  ob- 
vious meaning  of  its  symbols,  and  forced  on  them  constructions 
the  most  unauthorized  and  unnatural,  in  order  to  escape  the  de- 
monstration that  the  great  apostate  powers  which  it  foreshadows, 
are  those  to  which  they  belong  ! 


639  CONCLUSION. 


CONCLUSION. 

I.  One  of  the  most  conspicuous  characteristics  of  the  prophecy 
thus  is,  that  it  exhibits  the  true  worshippers  as  perpetually  in- 
volved, until  the  advent  of  Christ,  in  a  violent  conflict  with  an- 
tagonist powers.  It  is  made  a  question  throughout  the  whole 
period.  Who  shall  reign  ?  Who  has  the  chief  right  of  dominion 
over  men  ?  Whom  shall  they  honor  as  of  supreme  authority  ? 
Christ  claims  exclusive  homage  on  the  ground  of  his  deity,  and 
work  as  Redeemer ;  and  makes  known  his  purpose  to  maintain 
his  rights,  and  reward  men  with  life  or  death  eternal  according 
as  they  acknowledge  and  obey  him,  or  refuse  subjection  to  his 
sway ;  and  forewarns  them  that  they  are  to  be  called  to  a  severe 
test  of  their  allegiance. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  long  succession  of  antagonist  powers  dis- 
pute his  rights,  usurp  his  throne,  and  endeavor  to  compel  men 
to  make  their  homage  of  him,  subordinate  to  their  homage  of 
themselves.  The  pagan  rulers  of  the  ancient  empire  deny  his 
deity,  and  assert  the  divinity  of  their  idols  ;  and  arrogating  au- 
thority to  dictate  to  their  subjects  whom  they  shall  worship  and 
with  what  rites,  forbid  the  homage  of  him,  and  enjoin  instead  the 
worship  of  their  false  gods.  Their  successors  in  the  ancient  and 
modern  empire,  nominally  acknowledge  his  deity  and  right  to 
reign,  but  deny  it  practically,  by  claiming  dominion  over  the 
faith  and  worship  of  their  people,  making  his  laws  the  subject  of 
their  legislation,  and  thence  treating  his  rights  as  depending  on 
their  will.  In  like  manner  the  teachers  of  the  church  usurp  au- 
thority over  his  laws,  arrogate  an  exclusive  right  to  teach  and 
offer  a  worship,  and  endeavor  in  conjunction  with  the  civil  rulers, 
to  compel  men  to  submit  to  their  sway.  They  thus  dethrone 
God  as  the  object  of  homage,  set  aside  the  eternal  Word  as  Re- 
deemer, and  substitute  creatures  and  idols  in  their  place ;  and 
by  their  influence  the  church  at  large  is  drawn  into  apostasy. 
The  true  worshippers  are  reduced  to  a  small  number,  called  to 
maintain  allegiance  under  the  greatest  difiiculties,  and  to  give  by 
the  surrender  of  ease,  property,  friends,  and  life  itself,  the  most 
decisive  and  conspicuous  proofs  of  invincible  fidelity.  The  whole 
host  who  are  redeemed  during  this  period,  ascend  to  heaven  out 
of  great  tribulation,  and  are  crowned  as  victors  over  mighty  foes. 

II.  This  conflict  is  conducted  in  the  presence  of  the  redeemed 
in  heaven  and  the  angels,  and  engages  their  profoundcst  attention 


CONCLUSION.  537 

They  were  spectators  of  its  symbolization  in  the  visions,  and 
then  made  acquainted  doubtless,  in  a  far  higher  degree  than  we 
are,  with  its  nature  and  design ;  and  they  are  represented  as 
aware  at  its  great  epochs  of  its  progress.  They  are  exhibited 
as  offering  symbols  in  the  divine  presence  of  the  prayers  of  the 
saints  for  deliverance  from  their  heathen  persecutors,  and  as  cast- 
ing fire  to  the  earth  in  token  of  the  avenging  judgments  which 
were  soon  to  descend  on  those  apostate  powers  ;  and  their  voices 
are  heard  hymning  the  Almighty  at  the  commencement  of  the 
judgment,  and  at  the  final  overthrow  of  the  wild  beast  and  false 
prophet ;  indicating  that  they  are  witnesses  of  this  dispensation, 
and  that  it  is  conducted  with  a  reference  to  them. 

III.  The  usurpation  of  his  empire  by  his  enemies  through  so 
vast  a  period,  and  persecution  of  his  worshippers,  is  allowed  for 
reasons  of  wisdom  and  benignity.  It  was  perhaps  at  first  unex- 
pected to  all  creatures,  and  wrapped  in  clouds  and  darkness,  and 
to  men  has  ever  been  a  mystery.  Instead  of  comprehending  it, 
or  notwithstanding  its  difficulties,  still  adoring  and  trusting  him 
as  all-wise  and  all-good,  they  have  often  drawn  from  it  conclu- 
sions adverse  to  his  perfections,  and  against  his  existence  ;  some 
ascribing  it  to  a  want  of  power  to  control  his  moral  creatures, 
and  accomplish  his  wishes  ;  and  some  to  a  want  of  benevolence  ; 
some  interpreting  it  as  the  offspring  of  a  preference  of  rebellion 
to  obedience ;  and  others  as  a  proof  that  no  self-existent  and 
independent  being  sways  the  sceptre  of  tiie  universe.  But  the 
celebrations  of  the  heavenly  hosts  show,  that  they  regard  it  as 
founded  on  reasons  worthy  of  the  Supreme,  forming  a  dazzling 
display  of  his  perfections,  and  destined  to  subserve  iiis  glory  and 
the  well-being  of  his  kingdom  throughout  his  everlasting  reign  ; 
and  those  reasons,  and  the  mode  in  which  it  is  to  exert  that  in- 
fluence, are  in  a  degree  unfolded  in  the  prophecy.  It  is  exhibited 
as  introductory  to  another  and  widely  different  dispensation, 
which  is  to  last  through  eternal  ages,  and  a  preparation  for  it  by 
the  displays  which  it  presents  of  the  rights  of  God,  the  ciiarac- 
ter  of  man,  the  reality  of  their  reconciliation  wiiom  he  pardons, 
and  an  exemplification  of  all  the  great  truths  on  wiiich  the  work 
of  redemption  proceeds.  When  the  great  tragedy  draws  to  a 
close,  the  heavenly  hosts  give  thanks  that  he  has  thus  reigned  as 
a  sovereign,  and  represent  it  as  the  result  of  his  adminislraliou 
that  the  salvation  of  the  redeemed  is  seen  to  be  wholly  oi  him. 
"  We  thank  thee,"  they  sing,  "  0  Lord  the  Almighty  God,  wiio  is 
and  who  was,  that  thou  hast  assumed  thy  great  power  and  reigned ; 
and  the  nations  were  angry,  and  thy  wrath  is  come,  and  the  time 

68 


538  CONCLUSION. 

of  the  dead  to  judge  and  give  the  reward  to  thy  servants,"  chap.  xi. 
17,  18.  "  Halleluia  !  the  salvation,  and  the  glory,  and  the  power, 
are  of  our  God,  for  true  and  righteous  are  his  judgments,"  chap, 
xix.  1,  2.  The  redeemed  who  go  out  of  the  great  tribulation,  on 
their  resurrection  and  assumption  to  heaven,  exclaim,  "  The  salva- 
tion to  our  God  who  sits  on  the  throne,  and  to  the  Lamb  ;"  and 
the  angelic  hosts  respond,  "  The  blessing,  and  the  glory,  and  the 
wisdom,  and  the  thanks,  and  the  honor,  and  the  dominion,  and 
the  might  to  our  God  forever  and  ever,"  chap.  vii.  10-12.  They 
see  in  the  displays  of  this  long  succession  of  ages,  vast  and 
resistless  demonstrations  that  the  salvation  which  he  bestows, 
is  indeed  such  as  he  represents  it ; — a  salvation  of  enemies  ; 
a  salvation  from  merited  death  ;  a  salvation  which  required 
as  its  ground  the  expiatory  sacrifice  of  the  incarnate  Word  ; 
a  salvation  devised  by  boundless  wisdom,  accomplished  by  al- 
mighty power,  conferred  in  infinite  grace,  and  conducted  in  a 
manner  to  maintain  his  rights  unimpaired,  and  show  forth  his 
rectitude  in  its  unclouded  splendor.  And  such  are  obviously  the 
convictions  to  which  the  spectacle  is  adapted  to  give  birth.  It 
presents  a  vast  demonstration  that  men  are  truly  the  enemies  of 
God,  and  that  the  power  alone  of  the  almighty  Spirit  is  adequate 
to  renew  them  to  obedience.  It  presents  a  full  and  sublime  de- 
monstration that  those  whom  he  forgives  and  saves,  are  truly 
reconciled  to  him,  and  meet  for  admission  to  his  kingdom. 
Probably  no  others  of  his  obedient  subjects  give  such  decisive 
and  stupendous  proofs  of  invincible  fidelity,  as  those  who  main- 
tain allegiance  amidst  the  trials  of  this  period,  especially  the 
temptations  of  persecution  and  martyrdom.  It  exemplifies  in  a 
most  emphatic  manner  the  right  of  God  to  leave  men  to  rebel  and 
perish,  notwithstanding  the  interposition  of  the  Saviour  ;  and  the 
sovereignty  in  w^hich  he  confers  salvation  on  those  whom  he  re- 
news and  pardons.  It  exhibits  in  an  awful  form,  the  depth  of 
alienation  and  ruin  to  which  they  sink  who  revolt ;  the  total  in- 
adequacy of  law,  of  forbearance,  of  love,  of  rebukes,  of  all  secon- 
dary agencies  to  recall  them  to  obedient  affections,  and  shows 
thereby  how  hopeless  of  reformation  revolted  beings  would  be 
without  a  Saviour  and  sanctifier.  It  demonstrates  the  inflexible 
purpose  of  God  to  maintain  his  prerogatives  over  his  revolted 
subjects,  and  grant  salvation  to  none  but  those  who  return  to 
obedience,  acknowledge  his  rights  and  their  desert  of  destruction, 
and  accept  the  salvation  proifercd  by  Christ  as  a  free  gift.  It 
demonstrates  the  hopelessness  of  all  attempts  by  his  enemies  to 
escape  from  his  dominion,  to  gain  happiness  without  him,  to 


CONCLUSION.  539 

overturn  his  throne,  to  sully  his  rectitude,  to  baffle  his  wisdom, 
or  in  the  least  intercept  him  from  the  attainment  of  the  ends  at 
which  he  aims  ;  and  shows  that  they  who  refuse  to  honor  him 
by  obedience,  are  yet  to  be  compelled,  however  reluctant,  to  sub- 
serve his  glory  in  their  alienation. 

The  knowledge  of  these  great  truths  is  obviously  necessary, 
in  order  to  a  just  appreciation  of  the  work  of  redemption  ;  and 
their  exemplification  by  an  administration,  the  proper  means  of 
that  knowledge.  No  otlicr  method  could  carry  them  with  ccjual 
certainty  and  strength  to  the  conviction  of  the  infinite  multitudes 
of  the  universe  :  no  other  could  raise  the  redeemed  to  sucli  a 
realization  of  them.  Had  God  restored  our  first  parents  to  per- 
fect holiness  the  moment  after  their  fall,  and  renewed  each  of 
their  posterity  instantly  after  the  first  act  of  rebellion,  maintained 
them  ever  after  in  obedience,  and  exempted  them  wholly  from 
punishment,  no  proof,  except  his  testimony,  would  have  existed 
to  the  universe  that  they  were  sinners.  No  exemplifications 
would  have  been  presented  of  the  condition  to  which  rebels  natu- 
rally sink,  of  his  rights  over  them,  of  the  inadequacy  of  law  to 
maintain  them  in  rectitude,  or  of  the  necessity  of  an  expiation  by 
the  eternal  Word  in  order  to  their  pardon.  His  whole  govern- 
ment over  them  would  have  been  an  enigma,  and  naturally  led 
to  the  most  dangerous  conclusions  respecting  his  rights,  his  rec- 
titude, and  Ills  wisdom.  An  exemplification  of  all  the  great  truths 
on  which  he  proceeds,  on  so  vast  a  scale  as  to  present  an  abso- 
lute and  irresistible  demonstration  of  them  to  the  whole  universe, 
and  in  a  form  by  which  they  should  ever  be  present,  was  doubt- 
less indispensable  therefore  to  the  possibility  of  redemption,  con- 
sistently with  his  glory  and  the  safety  of  his  empire.  Tliat  de- 
monstration will  be  formed  by  the  trial  of  six  tliousand  years,  in 
which  a  full  exhibition  is  made  of  what  man  is,  in  all  the  possible 
conditions  of  life ;  a  full  manifestation  of  the  attributes,  the 
rights,  and  the  purposes  of  God  ;  and  a  vast  and  glorious  exem- 
plification of  the  reality  of  their  reconciliation  to  him  and  fitness 
for  his  presence,  whom  he  raises  to  his  kingdom  ;  and  the  way 
prepared  for  his  then  bestowing  salvation  on  the  whole  race 
through  a  long  succession  of  ages  ;  not  only  without  exposing 
himself  to  misconstruction,  and  endangering  his  holy  subjects; 
but  in  such  a  manner  as  eminently  to  display  the  grandeur  of  Ins 
wisdom,  power,  and  love  ;  and  subserve  ni  a  degree  worthy  of 
his  infinite  attributes,  the  intelligence,  the  virtue,  the  haj)piness, 
and  the  stability  of  his  kingdom. 

IV.  When  the  powers  who  usurp  his  empire  have  reached  the 


540  CONCLUSION. 

end  of  the  career  which  his  sovereignty  allows  them,  Christ  is  to 
interpose,  and  by  tremendous  judgtnents  refute  their  pretence  to 
rights  above  his,  vindicate  himself  from  their  blasphemies,  and 
prepare  the  way  at  length  for  their  destruction.  And  at  that 
crisis  the  discrimination  of  the  true  worshippers  from  the  anti- 
christian  powers  is  to  become  more  marked,  and  the  contest  be- 
tween them  to  rise  to  greater  violence.  On  the  one  hand,  the 
people  of  God  are  to  separate  themselves  publicly  from  the  apos- 
tate hierarchies,  and  wholly  refuse  submission  to  the  usurped 
dominion  over  them  of  the  civil  rulers  ;  and  on  the  other,  the 
civil  rulers  are  to  endeavor  to  crush  them  by  persecution,  and  to 
slaughter  them  in  such  numbers  as  to  presume  that  their  aim  is 
accomplished.  But  at  that  dread  epoch  the  Son  of  God  is  pub- 
licly to  raise  his  martyred  witnesses  from  death,  and  assume  them 
to  heaven,  and  by  those  great  acts  show  tliat  they  are  his  true 
worshippers.  And  at  a  later  period,  when  the  anlichristian 
powers  have  renewed  the  persecution  of  his  people,  is  again  vis- 
ibly to  interpose,  and  by  the  resurrection  and  assumption  to 
heaven  of  all  his  saints,  and  the  destruction  of  the  apostate  ru- 
lers and  their  vassals  that  are  openly  arrayed  against  him,  pre- 
sent to  all  the  survivors  of  the  race  overwhelming  proofs  that 
they  who  had  so  long  claimed  to  be  his  vicegerents,  and  arroga- 
ted dominion  over  his  laws,  were  his  enemies,  and  thus  prepare 
the  way  for  their  acknowledging  him  as  their  God  and  King. 

V.  Though  this  great  process  of  judgment  has  already  com- 
menced, the  first  five  vials  already  been  showered  on  the  nations, 
and  the  sixth  begun  to  descend,  yet  the  train  of  great  events  which 
is  still  to  precede  the  advent  of  the  Redeemer,  is  such  as  must 
naturally  occupy  many  years  ; — a  fuller  proclamation  of  the  gos- 
pel to  every  nation,  and  tribe,  and  tongue,  and  people,  and  warn- 
ing of  his  approaching  judgments  ;  the  sealing  of  the  servants 
of  God  ;  the  tempests  of  commotion  and  revolution  that  are  to  fol- 
low the  excitement  of  the  winds  after  their  sealing  is  completed  ; 
the  persecution  and  slaughter  of  the  witnesses ;  their  resurrec- 
tion ;  the  revolutions  that  are  to  follow  their  resurrection  and  as- 
sumption to  heaven ;  the  fall  of  the  apostate  hierarchies  from 
their  stations  as  national  establishments  ;  the  summons  after  their 
fall  of  the  people  of  God  to  come  out  of  them  ;  another  and  last 
persecution  ;  and  the  procedure  of  the  unclean  spirits  from  the 
dragon,  wild  beast,  and  false  prophet,  to  gather  the  kings  togeth- 
er to  battle  against  God. 

VI.  Political  agitations  and  revolutions  through  the  whole  cir 
cle  of  the  earth,  are  also  to  follow  the  seventh  trumpet,  and 


CONCLUSION.  541 

doubtless  the  resurrection  of  the  saints,  that  must  naturally  oc- 
cupy a  considerable  period  anterior  to  the  final  destruction  of  the 
antichristian  powers  at  the  great  battle  of  God.  That  destruc- 
tion is  to  extend  only  to  the  usurping  civil  rulers,  the  apostate 
hierarchies,  and  tiieir  armies  ;  not  to  the  nations  at  large  over 
whom  they  have  exercised  their  sway.  They  who  are  then  to 
be  cast  alive  into  the  lake  of  fire,  are  the  antichristian  rulers  of 
the  political  kingdoms  of  the  western  empire,  and  the  apostate 
ecclesiastics  of  the  papal  state  ;  and  they  who  are  to  be  slain, 
the  other  kings  of  the  earth  and  their  armies.  There  are  no  in- 
dications that  any  are  to  be  destroyed  at  that  epoch  but  those 
who  are  in  open  and  organized  array  against  the  Messiah.  The 
harvest  of  tiie  saints  is  probably  to  follow  that  battle,  and  con- 
stitute a  public  discrimination  and  acknowledgment  of  all  the 
truly  sanctified  who  survive  on  the  earth,  as  the  children  of 
God  ;  and  is  doubtless  the  separation  and  judgment  of  the  sheep. 
The  vintage  is  to  take  place  at  a  still  later  period,  and  is  to  con- 
stitute the  judgment  and  condemnation  of  those  who  have  ap- 
proved and  sustained  the  antichristian  powers  in  their  war  on 
God  ;  not  the  race  at  large  ;  and  is  probably  the  same  as  the 
judgment  of  the  goats.  There  is  thus  to  be  a  public  revision  of 
Christ's  administration,  and  of  the  conduct  of  those  who  have 
acted  in  immediate  relation  to  him,  during  the  persecution  of  the 
witnesses  and  his  judgments  on  the  antichristian  powers  ;  and 
the  race  at  large,  prepared  by  the  demonstration  of  his  rights  and 
righteousness,  for  submission  to  liis  sway. 

When  all  the  antichristian  powers  and  their  supporters  have 
thus  been  destroyed,  Satan  and  his  legions  are  to  be  cast  into 
their  prison,  and  restrained  during  the  Redeemer's  millennial 
reign,  from  tempting  the  nations. 

VII.  At  length  the  incarnate  Word  is  to  descend  and  estab- 
lish his  throne  on  the  earth,  as  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords. 
The  glorified  saints  are  to  enjoy  stations  in  his  kingdom  as  prin- 
ces and  priests,  suited  to  the  grandeur  of  their  faculties,  the  vast- 
ness  of  their  knowledge,  and  the  beauty  of  their  rectitude  ;  and  to 
make  displays  of  wisdom,  virtue,  and  love,  that  shall  show  them 
to  be  fitted  for  the  relations  to  which  he  exalts  them.  All  nations 
and  all  individuals  arc  to  be  sanctified  and  freed  from  cxiiausting 
toil,  suffering,  sorrow,  and  death  ;  the  earth  converted  into  a  par- 
adise of  righteousness,  blessedness,  and  life,  and  infinite  proofs 
thus  given  of  its  fitness  to  be  the  abode  of  a  holy  and  hai)py  race. 
The  saints  living  at  his  advent,  are,  probably  after  his  kingdom 
has  thus  become  established,  to  be  transfigured,  and  united  with 


542  CONCLUSION. 

those  raised  from  death  ;  and  that  is  the  mode  in  which  the  gen- 
erations of  the  race  are  thereafter  to  be  glorified.  Not  only  are 
the  raised  and  transfigured  to  enjoy  the  visible  presence  of  the 
Redeemer,  but  the  unglorified  nations  also  are  to  behold  him, 
bend  at  his  tiirone,  and  meet  his  smile. 

VIII.  When  he  has  thus  reigned  through  the  vast  tract  of  ages, 
denoted  by  the  millennium,  Satan  and  his  legions  are  again  to  be 
released,  allowed  to  renew  the  seduction  of  men,  and  for  a  short 
period  to  draw  a  portion  of  them  into  apostasy,  and  attempt  to 
usurp  the  dominion  of  the  world,  and  show  thereby,  both  that 
their  thirst  of  evil  remains  unquenched,  and  that  men,  though  in 
conditions  most  propitious  to  their  obedience,  yet  when  left  by 
the  Spirit,  and  assailed  by  temptation,  instantly,  as  in  earlier  ages, 
revolt  ;  and  thence  renew  the  demonstration  that  their  salvation 
who  are  redeemed,  is  wholly  of  God.  They  are  speedily,  how- 
ever, to  be  arrested  in  their  rebellion,  and  dashed  by  the  Re- 
deemer to  destruction. 

IX.  Satan  and  his  hosts  having  thus  manifested  their  unalter- 
ed enmity,  and  shown  the  danger  of  their  being  allowed  access 
to  other  orders  of  beings,  are  then  to  be  consigned  to  the  abyss 
of  darkness  throughout  their  immortal  existence  ;  and  infinite  de- 
monstrations having  been  made  during  the  millennium,  of  the 
righteousness  and  benevolence  of  his  reign  whom  they  refused 
to  obey,  of  the  virtue  and  happiness  of  which  they  were  capable, 
and  of  their  persistence  in  rebellion,  the  unholy  dead  are  then 
also  to  be  raised  from  the  grave,  publicly  judged,  and  consigned 
to  eternal  punishment. 

X.  Men  are  thereafter  to  continue  obedient  through  ever- 
lasting years,  and  swell  to  numbers  as  vast  as  would  have  de- 
scended from  the  first  pair  throughout  eternal  ages,  had  they  nev- 
er revolted. 

How  infinite  are  the  designs  of  the  Redeemer  !  How  worthy 
of  him  the  results  that  are  to  spring  from  his  interposition  !  How 
sublime  the  destiny  of  his  people  !     Come,  Lord  Jesus. 


THE  END 


NOTE. 


In  the  revision  of  this  work  for  the  present  edition,  the  construction  of  the 
symbols  remains  unaltered,  with  the  exception  of  the  palm-bearing  multitude, 
the  hundred  forty-four  thousand  on  Mount  Zion,  and  the  beast  from  the  abyss. 
The  palm-bearing  host  I  now  regard  as  representing  the  living  believers  who 
at  Christ's  coming  are  to  be  changed  to  immortal,  instead  of  the  holy  dead  who 
are  to  be  raised  to  glory.  The  hundred  forty-four  thousand  standing  with  the 
Lamb  on  Mount  Zion,  instead  of  the  witnesses  raised  from  death,  are,  I  deem 
it  more  probaljle,  living  saints  who  are  to  be  changed  to  glory  at  Christ's 
advent.  The  wild  beast  from  the  abyss,  chap,  xvii.,  I  interpret  as  representing 
the  civil  rulers  of  western  Europe  in  a  form  they  are  to  assume  a  sliort  time 
before  their  final  overthrow,  the  chief  peculiarity  of  which  is  to  be  the  eleva- 
tion over  them  of  an  imperial  chief  to  whom  the  kings  are  to  be  subordinate. 

Some  of  the  topics  of  the  work,  especially  the  Laws  of  Symbolization,  have 
been  treated  at  length  in  the  Theological  and  Literary  Journal.  Those  who 
may  wish  a  full  enumeration  and  classification  of  the  Symbols  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  exhibition  of  the  relations  in  which  they  are  used,  and  the  laws  by  which 
they  are  to  be  interpreted,  are  referred  to  the  Journal,  vol.  i.  pp.  11-63  ;  177- 
255:  vol.  iii.  pp.  667-695:  voL  vii.  pp.  177-217;  386^14;  575-5'.)  1 :  vol.  viii. 
pp.  1-50,  and  other  articles. 

Examples  of  the  application  of  those  laws  in  the  criticism  of  constructions 
by  writers  who  violate  them,  may  be  found  vol.  i.  pp.  5-t-130;  399-432 ;  529- 
544:  vol.  ii.  pp.  420-453 ;  656-698:  vol.  iii.  pp.  1-59 ;  353-383;  529-575: 
vol.  iv.  pp.  1-61 ;  177-217 :  vol.  vi.  pp.  53-99  ;  247-279  ;  389-403  :  vol.  viii. 
pp.  353-414:  vol.  ix.  pp.  529-582:  voL  xi.  pp.  310-351,  and  many  other 
Reviews. 

Expositions  at  length  are  given  of  the  sixth  vial,  vol.  vi.  pp.  329-336  :  of  the 
beast  from  the  abyss,  vol.  vi.  pp.  301-321 :  of  Christ's  prophecy,  Matthew  xxiv. 
voL  X.  pp.  403-450,  and  elsewhere  of  other  prophecies  that  arc  of  special  inte 
rest  at  the  present  time. 


rf- 


BS2825  .L866  1859 

An  exposition  of  the  Apocalypse. 

Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00069  9969 


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